Dear Hsiao,
The reason I am calm about your story of the turtle that was eaten by the condor and the remark of the zookeeping is because I think this story, and others like it, are fiction and are always circulating on the internet.
With fiction, there is really nothing to worry about. It didn't really happen. And even if it did, the condor probably had babies in a nest somewhere to feed. In any event, an old and wise saying calls the natural world "nature red in tooth and claw". It is true, often beautiful as it is, they are all killing and eating each other. We humans should not be that way, though.
That is why I am much more interested in understanding and friendship among all people,and in doing away with war. One of the reasons I am here is to be a sincere friend and helper of you who are so far away from me in Canada. I think together we can make the world a friendlier and safer place through mutual understanding and caring.
If you would like to know something real that happened to an animal a few days ago and that touched my heart deeply, I will tell you about it. I saw a news photo of the poor singed donkey that was sent to pull his cart loaded with a rocket launcher to a hotel so that it could strike the hotel. Poor, innocent donkey.
The little donkey stood all alone in the mid distance, near its upset and broken cart. It's tail was a bald length, with all the fur burnt off. It appeared to be sad and lonely as it stood patiently waiting. Soldiers could be seen close-up in the foreground. They weren't paying it any attention. Far back a couple of people were looking in its direction but they were really looking at the destruction of the hotel. Who cared about the little donkey?
It was one of the lonliest and most touching animal pictures I have ever seen. I love animals. Almost all of them. To see a poor innocent donkey that had been used for evil was much more heart-wrenching than the turtle and the condor story.
How long are we simple people going to have to wait for others to stop hating and fighting? I won't see it in my lifetime, but I am convinced that it will necessarily come. Otherwise we may as well bid goodbye to the human race, and that is not what all the prophecies for thousands of years past say will happen.
Man can be both evil and good, depending where he focusses his mind and heart. Up to reflect light, or down to reflect dirt.
You see, dear Hsiao, I'm not the calm stoic you thought.
With a saddened heart, but friendship to you,
Mary