The lions at the zoo, a male and two females, were kept on a small island surrounded by a deep and empty moat. Encircling the moat on the outside was a low wall that I leaned against, studying the ragged mane of the male. He lay comfortably on his haunches, a lazy and confident predator. A family with a young boy passed near me, and out of my peripheral vision I saw the boy start to run toward another exhibit. At that moment the entire body of the great cat flinched, and his eyes followed the child.
If he had leapt, he would have fallen in the moat. That's what's supposed to happen anyway. But not so long ago at the zoo in San Francisco, a tiger escaped a similar enclosure and attacked two men. But that's another story.
The day I watched the lion gird itself to leap I remember thinking there would be nothing I could do. If the lion got out I would just have to run. Now that I am forty, I have a different take. I just might try to grab that lion by the tail, or something equally preposterous, like kick it in the shins. No, the years haven't made me very brave and I hope haven't added to my already illustrious level of foolishness. But they have brought about a fierce protectiveness of children. The feeling has grown in me over many years, and now I am a father living with my tiny daughter. Children are our gift to the world. Each one an amazing wealth of possibilities and energies to be cherished and enlivened, to be buoyed and nourished.
But words pale. Once upon a time, this video would have bored me. Now I keep watching it with a silly grin on my face:
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