White Rhinos

  On my Facebook feed today, I saw the very sad news that there is only one known example of a northern male white rhino in existence. His name is "Sudan", and according to the article, he is apparently very ill. The unfortunate part of this news is that there are only two other females that this male rhinoceros can mate with, and all three are in the process of ageing. This rhino is heavily protected, yet its the internal state of its being that stands to truly threaten it with extinction.
   Rhinos have always symbolized for me the most threatened animals, even when I was very young. Part of the problem is that they are such beautiful and prized creatures, whose horns are valued for their apparent medicinal properties. Whether such medicinal virtues are real or not, it remains questionable to me whether it is truly worth it for the species to be killed only for the sake of its horn. The paradox is that, however strong or sturdy the rhinoceros's body is, it is truly one of the most vulnerable creatures. I have always marveled at this paradox, and feel sad that humans are losing this species through the combination  greed, exploitation and unlimited "growth" or expansion of human societies.
   Eugene Ionesco wrote a play called Rhinoceros, which I read many years ago. This play did a quite opposite thing in suggesting the rhino to symbolize conformity and (perhaps) a kind of herd mentality. Interestingly, in my mind, the whole play represents not being part of any crowd, and not having the sufficient support and resources to find sustenance through a group of people.
     Compassion itself, as I mentioned in my earlier blog, is not so easy to negotiate in crowds. I am far too used to people passing off words like "unity" and "doing things together as a group" to realize that this kind of solidarity conceals more than it truly unifies or harmonizes. Even when people profess to share the same beliefs and principles, it's rare to find that people's experiences of these principles and beliefs is going to be exactly identical, let alone the way they express their shared commitments to a group. What always invariably happens is that the power of the group trumps the ability for individuals to find support and care. This is similar to what happens when species diversity is neglected in favor of the "grander" goals to profit and unlimited human expansion, which ends up becoming exploitative in some way.
   Being able to look at things from a variety of perspectives can often help to mitigate the tendency to marginalize sentient beings or leave people disenfranchised. This takes a lot of hard thinking and trying out different things with some persistence and sensitivity. But most importantly, it requires an attitude of never giving up trying to fight for the protection of sentient beings. Guarding the white rhino symbolizes an almost futile quest, but it is something that is done in the spirit of love and faith that the love means something, and it has longer consequences that cannot necessarily be seen in the moment.