My daughter and I had a long discussion about the tiger attack at the San Francisco zoo last night. She has been very curious about the tiger killing incident.
We talked about it a bit and after a brief moment of silence she said, “Well, I guess you should never taunt a tiger.”
I told her that was a good motto for life.
The thought relates to the Oprah show based on the book, The Gift of Fear. The theme of the book is about trusting your instincts. For example, if an animal senses danger, it doesn’t feel bad about it or question it. It runs for its life or prepares to fight to the death. The author pointed out that only humans will get into an elevator with someone they sense is unsafe in order to “be nice.” Your basic jungle animal wouldn’t even think about. They’d be running. I am taking this to heart and I am going to discuss it with my children.
I want my son and daughter to lead a life where they neither live in fear, nor seek danger, but are savvy enough and mentally strong enough to stay away from predators of all sorts. May they never be in a situation where they taunt a tiger of any kind.
