Sunday, October 10, 2010

GUEST ARTIST: Sunday Memories: It Was Her New York - Part IX

A woman truly from Her New York, Joni will be the Guest Artist for the next several weeks.

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Tina, The Elephant, Central Park Zoo (early 1980s)



Joni said Tina was so unpleasant that when they were renovating the Central Park Zoo into a livable place for animals no other zoo would take her.

She lived in a small enclosure which had an outside back yard you had to climb up a steep hill of stairs to see down into. From a distance, it was looked like home and she looked like she lived happily in it.

Now, knowing more about the hearts and souls of animals, especially pachyderms, I realized she must have been devastated to be so far from where she belonged.

My sister and me at the Central Park Zoo (early 1960s)

Perhaps, from a distance, our lives looked good to someone else as well.

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2 comments:

City Of Strangers said...

Hi Joni,

Yeah, or not have any room, or any other elephants. Fascinating creatures - apparently they will grieve over their dead and sometimes return to the dead elephant site (or graveyard) to pay homage. Anthropologists say this is how we first formed settlements - coming back to pay homage to our dead.

I'm trying to remember the details and where I read this - possibly the Times.

Nice post anyway . . .

T.

VH McKenzie said...

If it's any consolation, I think everyone's lives look good to someone else, the someone else who is not living that life. On the other hand, somtimes a life looks worse than it is, too.........