Joined: Jul 01, 2005 Posts: 367 Location: right up your alley
Posted: Sep 2, 7:23 am Post subject: Animal Farm
There are so many animals in so many places doing so many things at the Fair that after a while, fur feathers and fins no longer impress. Sheep and chimps and cows and llamas and snakes and hawks all mix and mingle with the two-legged mammals to create a Darwinian duck soup on any given day and time at the Fairgrounds.
None of the animal exhibits impressed me as much as the pony rides found in KiddyLand. While taking a calm moment alone in the kid’s section of the Fairgrounds, I just happened to be facing and focused upon the pony rides.
Within 15 minutes, I began to wonder who the true beast of burden was.
For $5.00, parents could place their younglings upon the backs of tiny little ponies. Four of them are attached to a pole that just goes around in a circle. Such a horrible life they must lead. Walking in circles for 15 hours a day, day after day. I think I would rather drown myself in NOLA flood waters than face a lifetime of such a Syssaphysian chore. Round and round; five laps per paying customer.
As the moments went on, my heart began to sink lower and lower. Round and round they went. With each step, I began to focus inward and wonder how much of my life is spent going around and around. How many people do I know who just lash themselves to the mainstream pole and clippity clop along until they one day drop dead. Of what value is life when your next step looks like your last and when tomorrow will be no different than today?
But as poorly as I was feeling for those ponies, it was the ride ticket taker that caught my immediate attention. Here was a 16-18ish kid taking people’s money and then placing their child on the back of the pony.
Most strikingly was what happened next. Once all kidlets were secured in place on the ponies, and the circuitous walk commenced, four horsies plodded long and helping move the horsies was the kid. Yep, I noticed that he took ahold of one of the bars to which the ponies were lashed and walked along in circles with the animals. I thought well maybe he did it once or twice to help the ride or to protect the kids. But upon closer scrutiny I noticed that the kid did the walk with the ponies each and every time the horses walked.
As sad as I felt for the animals … I began to hurt more for the kid. Does he realize that he suffers the same life sentence as his mates? I wondered if he felt the emptiness of his journeys.
How many days, weeks, months, and years will this boy dedicate to going nowhere? What does he think about as he walks? What do the ponies think about? Could they all be daydreaming of frolicking freely in a meadow … spending eternity walking the straight and narrow?
How many metaphors for life can you draw from this scene?
Give me a few more whine slushies and watch how I can drool and drone on and on about the vaccuousness of life … all drawn from a cheap side show at the Fair.
Ultimately, methinks this tableau reveals a measure of like the novel, Animal Farm, that while some animals are more equal than others, in the end, we are all animals and all equal. _________________ I dont want a life I can live with. I want a life I can't live without.
Joined: Oct 16, 2004 Posts: 456 Location: upstate NY
Posted: Sep 5, 6:51 pm Post subject: no difference
The kid is walking with the ponies in order to provide the customer with a product and 'Kid' a paycheck.
There really is no difference between Kid and Joe Blow in an Idaho factory doing mundane work. This is the work that the republicans say " Any monkey can do", but on closer reflection we find that even a monkey would walk away from. Kid makes the job look easy, as he probably knows the horses, and has a routine that he follows. This helps insure uniformity of the product being sold. If Mark, eric, or I walked in and tried to do this task, the horses would most likely look at us like we were idiots, and proceed to take a shit on our shoes. He's doing a mundane yet specialized task, and hopefully is compensated as any specialist would be, although I doubt he really is.
Hey, at least Kid can walk away and finds something that he wants to do for a living, unlike the horses who are stuck in slavery.
Posted: Sep 6, 10:48 am Post subject: I hate that petting zoo
The youngest had to go and I walked through once and had to get out. The camel just made me cry like a baby. Yes all the animals are fed well but how would you like to be as big as a camel and be in an enclosure as small as a bathroom? I just wanted to let him out and take him home with me. Now that would be a sight. Camel in the back of pick up truck going down 690. _________________ You know when people see a cat's litter box, they always say, "Oh, have you got a cat?" Just once I want to say, "No, it's for company
Posted: Sep 6, 11:59 am Post subject: That would have
made me sick. I totally avoided that so called show because I know I would have wanted to punch the so called handlers. I can't bring myself to go to a circus either. _________________ You know when people see a cat's litter box, they always say, "Oh, have you got a cat?" Just once I want to say, "No, it's for company
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