While December brings the only Christmas day, Christmas can happen every day in the things we do and say.
Anonymous
The other day I witnessed a joyful reunion between a woman and her cat. The animal was let out of a car, and it raced to, and wound around, its happy owner’s legs, meowing with happiness. What a sight! Turns out the woman had flown back to Saginaw from Connecticut, but without her pet, who’d been lost. The cat was returned to her two weeks later by friends who’d found her, and driven her back to Michigan.
That loving reconnection reminded me of George Adamson- remember him? Mr. Adamson lived with lions in Kenya in the 60s and 70s, and raised worldwide awareness of the plight of Africa’s wild animals, especially elephants and lions, killed by hunters and poachers in that country. Recently I’d read that 25 years ago he himself been killed by bandits there, but that his legacy lived on.
In the 70s a famous film, called ‘Born Free’ cemented Adamson’s fame. Here’s a thumbnail sketch of one lion, Christian, that he reintroduced into the wild.
Australians Ace Burke and John Rendell had just arrived in London in 1969. When visiting Harrods department store, where one can buy almost anything, they saw a very young lion cub for sale! The rest of this story is best grasped by typing ‘a lion called Christian’ onto Google. Read the fascinating little blurb and then look to the right, where there is a blurry movie named ‘Christian the lion- full ending.’ Witness love’s impact for yourselves.
When the cub grew too large to keep in England Ace and John managed to bring him to Kenya, where George (and Joy Adamson, his wife) agreed to introduce Christian to the wild, and a pride. Their lion wound up being its leader. One year later Ace and John returned to Kenya to visit Christian, though experts strongly discouraged the idea, insisting that they risked being eaten by the huge beast. Christian would have no memory of his early life with them: the men would certainly be viewed as prey.
Undeterred, they went anyway, and spent days on the baking African savannah looking for their friend. One hot afternoon they finally spotted him amid his small pride of wild lions, and boldly called out. Christian stared, then padded slowly closer. Suddenly, a hundred feet away, he began to run straight at them. I still remember a thrill of horror as I watched his charge. But the huge animal reared up and gathered the men into a crushing embrace, licking their faces and hugging them for a long time. He’d remembered, all right.
His mate, seeing what was happening, joined the happy threesome without reservation, taking her cue from the ecstatic Christian. It was an astonishing sight.
The witless experts crept away.
Never mind what sort of animal one is; never mind the enormous differences in cultures, Love can trash assumptions; Love can certainly adjust to differences; Love can connect us all.
Anonymous
The other day I witnessed a joyful reunion between a woman and her cat. The animal was let out of a car, and it raced to, and wound around, its happy owner’s legs, meowing with happiness. What a sight! Turns out the woman had flown back to Saginaw from Connecticut, but without her pet, who’d been lost. The cat was returned to her two weeks later by friends who’d found her, and driven her back to Michigan.
That loving reconnection reminded me of George Adamson- remember him? Mr. Adamson lived with lions in Kenya in the 60s and 70s, and raised worldwide awareness of the plight of Africa’s wild animals, especially elephants and lions, killed by hunters and poachers in that country. Recently I’d read that 25 years ago he himself been killed by bandits there, but that his legacy lived on.
In the 70s a famous film, called ‘Born Free’ cemented Adamson’s fame. Here’s a thumbnail sketch of one lion, Christian, that he reintroduced into the wild.
Australians Ace Burke and John Rendell had just arrived in London in 1969. When visiting Harrods department store, where one can buy almost anything, they saw a very young lion cub for sale! The rest of this story is best grasped by typing ‘a lion called Christian’ onto Google. Read the fascinating little blurb and then look to the right, where there is a blurry movie named ‘Christian the lion- full ending.’ Witness love’s impact for yourselves.
When the cub grew too large to keep in England Ace and John managed to bring him to Kenya, where George (and Joy Adamson, his wife) agreed to introduce Christian to the wild, and a pride. Their lion wound up being its leader. One year later Ace and John returned to Kenya to visit Christian, though experts strongly discouraged the idea, insisting that they risked being eaten by the huge beast. Christian would have no memory of his early life with them: the men would certainly be viewed as prey.
Undeterred, they went anyway, and spent days on the baking African savannah looking for their friend. One hot afternoon they finally spotted him amid his small pride of wild lions, and boldly called out. Christian stared, then padded slowly closer. Suddenly, a hundred feet away, he began to run straight at them. I still remember a thrill of horror as I watched his charge. But the huge animal reared up and gathered the men into a crushing embrace, licking their faces and hugging them for a long time. He’d remembered, all right.
His mate, seeing what was happening, joined the happy threesome without reservation, taking her cue from the ecstatic Christian. It was an astonishing sight.
The witless experts crept away.
Never mind what sort of animal one is; never mind the enormous differences in cultures, Love can trash assumptions; Love can certainly adjust to differences; Love can connect us all.