And they always have. I don't know why, exactly. Maybe they make everybody smile. I can't imagine anybody looking at one and being afraid or sad. There is something somehow...comforting...about a giraffe.
When I was a baby, one of my favorite toys was a small yellow plastic giraffe with bright blue eyes. It squeaked when it was squeezed. I called it, originally enough, Raffy. No, I had not started naming everything after literary or mythological characters, you see. Anyway, I carried it everywhere. In fact, I still have Raffy tucked up on a shelf in my office. He's right there alongside my complete works of Shakespeare and my teachers' editions.
One day, I want to see giraffes in their native habitat. I've seen them in zoos, but that always just makes me sad. I don't, as a general rule, like zoos very much. I know they can be nice, and I know they can be a place where endangered animals can survive, but I can't ever escape the feeling that all the animals in them are in mourning for something lost. I'd like to see a bunch of tall giraffes, impossibly graceful for all their neck and legs, galloping across the plains someday. I think it would be a sight to feed the soul.
In honor of the general joy of giraffes, here are a couple of iPhone wallpapers I found recently. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did. Click them to see them large enough to see all the details at their original sources. Don't they make you smile?
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And then you said.....