I decided to befriend the “white” tiger at York Wild Kingdom, a small amusement park in York, ME, a town that I have spent summers in since I was a child.

I was recovering from major surgery, physically weak, and unable to exert myself. I went periodically to the amusement park and sat with the tiger, talked to her, waved to her, and kept her company. She never acknowledged me.

The action was a complete failure. And, in failure, made me reflect on our problematic relationships with other creatures, and with each other. I wish I could say that I found some revelatory space of contemplation that made sense of our contemporary situation. I didn’t. Except to realize that we are too complacent. That I am complacent. That tigers can be depressed.