This is another picture that I recently rediscovered on my computer that I took some months ago. I saw this little fella (or lady) during one of my walks in Golden Gate Park, and although seeing a dead animal used to make me sad, I've found that the last couple of years it has affected me in a more complex way. The dead animals that I've seen recently include this mouse and a Muscovy duck, which appeared to have been attacked and mostly eaten by another animal, probably a coyote. Below, rigor mortis appears to have set in on this Stow Lake resident, but its' stiffness is offset for me by the gentle, crescent moon shape formed by it's body. I see no signs of trauma in the photo; it looks as though life gently left it during a tranquil night's sleep.
The fact that I see these animals in what I regard as their natural environments, and because I see so much life here regularly during my walks, death seems more a part of the process of life (perhaps that fact that I am past fifty years old and can sense my own mortality also has something to do with it). Seeing things in environments that appear continuous with the life located there helps me to envision the world more holistically, and that helps me to feel more like I belong to that world as well.
As I finish writing this blog entry and look at the picture again, I have just remembered my father's death, who was also an animal, but who died in a hospital, a place for me which is an unnatural environment. When he finally died after a night where I watched him struggle to breath, his body too, stiffened quickly. I don't know how much that thought has to do with this blog subject, but the association is a real one for me, and I write here to uncover these kinds of associations.
In the picture accompanying this entry, the animal not only looks peaceful to me, but I believe that I can see the life that was once in it.
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