Pigs
On the news tonight, there was an image of curly-tailed pigs and then the message that they will all be slaughtered in (Egypt?). Swine flu has crossed international boundaries and as you have heard, it has everyone in a panic. Those who are wearing masks are downright silly. The virus is so small, it can easily infiltrate a mask. We don’t stop to realize how co-dependent we are, as nations of the world, until something like this happens. In tandem with that thought is another one: how fragile human life really is.
The four year old boy in a remote mountain village of La Gloria, who reported the first symptoms, is totally recovered and happily playing. Children can be more resilient than we would expect. As the news reporter stated, diseases such as the flu, seem to attack those with pre-existing medical problems, or older adults.
This situation is not unlike the bovine disease that struck a few years ago, and just about every cow in England was killed, and the meat, wasted. I feel very bad for these animals, one moment happily living, and the next minute declared an enemy of the people!
Pigs are particularly intelligent, in spite of their reputation for rolling in the mud, eating babies that fall into their pens, and being outlawed as food, by certain religions. I have known people who have owned Pot-bellied pigs, and they claim that they are really good pets. Piglets are the cutest little animals, and thinking of animations, who among us did not love “Miss Piggie” of Sesame Street.
Every day, there is a new wrinkle. Sigh.
Patricia Cummings
Quilter’s Muse Publications
