Animated Lion King was fantastic, at the heart of the golden era of Disney, along with Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Little Mermaid. I was at a perfect age to enjoy all of these, from age nine for Little Mermaid to fourteen for Lion King. It just so happened that that time was another golden era of my life-- when we got a new computer and Windows '95, the greatest, most eye-opening thing of my youth. Living in my dad's office from morn until night, I would insert that Lion King soundtrack CD into the CD-ROM player (because it could play audio CD's too[!!] We were so high tech), wait for the Windows Media Player or CD Player window to pop up, and my day was set. I'd journal, write essays, play on Paintbrush, perhaps dabble with some Minesweeper, all to the soundtrack of LK on a constant loop.
I recently filled out a "what's the best Disney song ever?" bracket worksheet and, though I knew it from the beginning, eventually came to Can You Feel the Love Tonight as the obvious winner. Click here to print and fill it out yourself. It's totally fun. Sean and I did it on a plane from an Entertainment Weekly and he came to When You Wish Upon a Star which i have doubts about. Classic? Iconic? To be sure. The BEST? Hmm. But back to Lion King. Circle of Life is also a great song. When that one began, you knew you were in for some quality film making.
Today, though, I was reminded that the great circle of life is not always so great. In fact, it can be downright horrible and because Julian and I both had to experience it today, it is incumbent that we share it with you.
The day started out calm and quiet. Julian was busy with some morning lego'ing and I had decided to make some blueberry lemon poppy seed muffins that turned out to be wretched, sadly. But midway through, I could hear the big cat outside crying. It was a strange cry, not his usual "let me in, I've been out for ten seconds" cry. It was one of alarm, perhaps? Confusion? Distress in some way? And usually when I let him in, his nose is at the door crack and he bolts in. This time, when I opened the door, I saw him pulled back in a scared stance, like he was frightened and didn't know what to do, much like this:
He looked at me and then fearfully looked at the door frame and my eyes fell on an enormous monarch-looking butterfly that had been CAUGHT AND PARTIALLY SMASHED IN THE DOOR. Its wings were torn and ragged and it was struggling, I think because it was sort of stuck to the frame. AUUGGH HOW DID THIS HAPPEN? Horrified, I bellowed to Julian who joined me at the scene. "What do I do??" I said. "I can't save it!" We wept and wailed and gnashed our teeth, utterly sickened by the scene but also laughing at the horrible twist of events. Do I put it out of its misery? What? What to do? What could anyone do.
We didn't know, but eventually I took a shoe and sort of scraped it off the door jamb so it wouldn't be shut on again. It fell to the doormat so I scooped it off onto the ground by the roses where both cats became very, very interested, and, cringing profoundly, I just sort of slowly closed the door and turned away. Sickened, both of us wailed some more at what just happened. I said, "goodbye, I'm going to go up to my room and cry on my bed now." Julian, always believing the best in cats, said, "hopefully they'll put it out of its misery quickly."
And we resumed our muffins and legos, significantly more morose than before, with the question hanging heavy on our hearts: Why, life? Why.
2 comments:
While this is sad, I was worried for a moment that one of your cats was going to be dead. *Phew*
Also, sorry to say this, but you are so wrong about the song. You picked one of the worst in the entire Disney canon. The winner is CLEARLY I'll Make a Man out of You. Case closed.
From Mulan??? Um... Joel... *nervous teeth/pity smile* I struggle to even remember that one.
Dead cat on the porch! So sad, and sinister. Frankly I kind of feel it's only a matter of time with the Biggie. But he's a scrappy one with 109 lives so, fingers crossed.
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