So, in this life, we think about ourselves, our goals: The new car, the money in the bank, the trips, and vacations, and kids clothes, and college funds, and life insurance, and rest assurance, and getting somewhere, and restaurants to go to, and a new dress for the next office gala…but what of the giraffes?
Have you ever pet a giraffe, climbed on a house and had one come over, climbed a tree in Africa and had one eat out of your hands, pet one behind the ear like a favorite dog and watched them lick up green leaves or lettuce out of your hand, and watch them, with their long blackish tongues, grab food as if their tongues were fingers, and watch one extend that long, thin, cool-looking thing 18 to 21 inches out, to hustle up a piece of food that you have in your open hand?
Ok, so I got a chance to pet a giraffe this weekend; and they really and truly are such gentle and docile souls, so loving and easy to approach and pet behind the ears and rub their little horns as the reach from the ground up higher and higher.
No, I wasn’t in Africa, wasn’t up a tree or standing on my house as one just happened to show up, but I was at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs, where they have built high platforms to walk on, about neck and head high to the giraffes that they come right up to you, and you can purchase some green lettuce to feed them.
These giraffes were like gentle dogs, were so loving and caring and approachable…it really was uncanny. It made me think of all the endangered animals, and the only 15 South Chinese tigers left in the world, but we are approaching 7 billion people ramming our way through every country, some still stealing tusks and killing elephants, and stepping on every creature’s natural habitat without thinking about the consequences.
And yet we humans are so concerned about me and mine and ours…that we forget about the myriad of animals and their habitats and their wildness that keeps this planet so incredible—a menagerie, a glorious tribute to life itself.
What if today, we took a bit of that hard or easy earned money, and shifted passions and focuses and began to create better lives for the helpless animals, the ones like the giraffes that few humans seldom get to see, or touch, or realize how loving and wonderful and gentle these magnificent souls really are.
Humans (the stewards of planet earth some say) must all start caring about the wild animals, the fish, the geese, the wildlife, the flowers, the glens and rivulets and valleys and hollars and keep these creatures alive, in the natural balance of earth, and the cycles of how life on this blue/green planet is meant to be.
7 billion people need a lighter footprint, a better way to live in harmony with the true cycles of nature; we need more reasons to help all the magnificent creatures on earth, still living in the forests and seas and mountains.
Do something to help, to save and keep this planet alive and well for all creatures. For when you get pet a giraffe, you completely get it, understand that these gentle souls are like are brothers and sisters and children of planet earth… this special place for all the animals to live free and thrive and exist.
It is not just about caring for and feeding our own race, but about preserves and open land and open space and bears and lions and moose and peacocks and fox and monkeys—all perhaps the true stewards of this “earth-ship.”
Do something today to help. Search online. Give to the arbor societies, and nature conservatives to make sure your great, great grandchildren will be able to still pet a wild giraffe in Africa.