The kid is home from nearly a week, and online classes, while being creative and satisfying (NOT), still cannot provide Keshav with the hyper-excitement that he craves for during his waking hours. And there are only so many trips that we can make to the neighborhood park everyday.
So, he has been watching animals, and thankfully, there are a lot of options out there.
Chanced upon this new show on Netflix – Our Living World, narrated by (thankfully) Cate Blanchett and not David Attenborough – aren’t you tired listening to that shaky voice?
Anyways, back to the show. Off late, animal-themed shows have been more than just recording high-resolution videos – they take on a theme and look at nature from that perspective. For instance, Apple TV has ‘Sounds of Nature’, which examines nature from the perspective of sound, and brings to the fore many an explanation that I was not aware of before..
This one on Netflix speaks about how we – humans, animals and nature – are all connected through an elaborate network where everyone, and everything, plays a critical part. There was a bit about a ‘Banana Fiddler Crab’ that I found pretty intriguing – the colors of the crab, the way their claws have evolved, and the way they live their lives – beautiful!
It’s good that kids nowadays have such fantastic sources of information – transitioning from Encyclopedia Britannica to Wikipedia to this – it’s all out there to discover. Learning is so much more fun now than it was when we were at it – memorizing animal classification doesn’t come close to watching an ostrich dance in 4k resolution 😐
Anyways, she did mention a couple of concepts that she said ‘had just been discovered’. One – that we are all connected – plants, animals, us, rivers and oceans, everything on this planet and beyond – an elaborate network of nature and existence. Two – that we, in this network, are all bound by our actions and their resulting consequences.
I think I’ve heard of these before.
अयंनिजःपरोवेतिगणनालघु-चेतसाम्।
उदार चरितानांतु वसुधैवकुटुम्बकम्॥
ayaṃ nijaḥ paro veti gaṇanā laghu-cetasām |
udāra-caritānāṃ tu vasudhaiva kuṭumbakam || 37 ||
This is mine, and that is yours – such thinking is for lowly minds. Minds that are noble and wise, think of the entire world as one family.
vasudhaiva kuṭumbakam – we consider the world as one family.
The second concept – the whole of the 4th chapter of the Bhagwad Gita is dedicated to this concept. Yes – Karma. Action and consequence.
Good morning Cate:)
See you tomorrow!