The March of the Penguins
Last night, Joshua and I went to see this great independent film called The March of the Penguins. It was a documentary about penguins in Antarctica and their mating rituals. It was absolutely fascinating. Seriously, it was! The funny this is, we tried to see it last weekend, but it was storming here in the 'Ville and the power went out in the theater just as the movie was about to start. So, last night, we decided to try again. During the film, I learned a lot about penguins. Here's what I learned in list format:
1. Penguins are totally awesome. They mate with one partner per mating season and share "parenting duties" in perhaps the most cooperative way in nature.
2. Baby penguins are the cutest thing I have EVER seen - and I really think I mean that.
3. Penguins are hard core. The way they survive in arctic climates is really amazing.
I also learned several things about myself. Here they are:
1. I could not live in the arctic.
2. I have a serious problem of anthropomorhizing. I do it all the time with my cat. I was doing it last night with the penguins. Honestly, throughout the whole film, as I was watching the penguins labor tirelessly, risking death from starvation and exhaustion, while traveling 70 miles each way to breed and then to go back to the ocean to eat again, my heart went out to the poor things. I kept thinking, "We should go help the penguins. We could shuttle them back and forth and help make sure their babies don't die." I found myself wondering what they were "saying" to each other, as they huddled in large groups to shield themselves from the harsh storms, all the while holding eggs on their feet to keep their babies warm. When a penguin would lose their egg, or their chick would die from starvation or cold, I was genuinely sad. I know, deep down inside, that the penguins were just following instinct and had no "emotion" as we understand it, but I wish that weren't so. I want to be friends with the penguins.
That said, how mentally ill am I???
That said...you should all go see the penguin film. I highly recommend it.
2 comments:
Mair-
Hey! Sorry to hear things are so stressful at school/not school anymore. I am sure that awesome husband of yours is helping out though. I saw the movie a few weeks ago and thought it was great too. I was most impressed by how close the penguins let the camera men get to them. By the way, I got into a big argument about the whole emotion thing because most of the people I went to see it with were women. Ouch! You are definitely not mentally ill with those comments (maybe the picking penguins up in trucks part...), I was being brutalized for the "only instincts" comments. I guess I don't know zoology enough to be able to make a definitive statement, but I can't imagine they have feelings - but it sure looks like they care and get sad and stuff.
All in all it was a pretty good film nad I don't think I will be seeing the documentary about the guy who lived with bears for 11 years until they killed him. I don't know if penguins have emotions, but they sure seem to have more intelligence than some humans. Hope grad work is going well and keep up the good fight! Cheers!
Don't worry about the anthopomorphizing ... the movie kind of forced that down our throats (and I could care less ... I loved it anyway).
The power went out in our theatre, too, when I went to see it. But it didn't happen until the last 30 seconds or so, so once it was up and running again (10 minute wait), we all got our money back!
Yay!
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