Tormented by the scorching heat yesterday here in Rome, I tried to use my imagination how to “refresh” myself towards evening. I switched on to the virtual mode and searched where on earth would be a little cooler. Among the piles of DVD’s in our recreation room, I found the March of the Penguins, 1995 Academy award-winning documentary, filmed in Antarctica!Perhaps it was the power of my imagination affecting my body, but towards the middle of this lovely film, I told the sister beside me, “I feel cold already!”
Joking aside, I found it not only very informative but a very contemplative film. I appreciated how, through the camera, the film “allows” the viewer to “caress” the beautiful feather of this unique bird, to get involved in the intimate love dance of the penguin couple, as well as in their arduous attempts to keep their chick alive.
At this point, it is very tempting to make some comparisons between the penguin’s “parental instinct” and that of humans. I’ll resist that, for fear of doing injustice to these two species, one way or the other.
I just asked myself this morning during meditation time what remained with me after watching this film. Two things: first, sentiments of praise for the Creator – for the care for the minutest detail in “programming” the life and the continuity of this species. The Biblical text that comes to me reflecting on this is from Lk 12:6 – “Are not five sparrows sold for two small coins? Yet not one of them has escaped the notice of God.” The second thing is a seemingly insignificant comment during one of the marches of the penguins. It says, “the solitary one is condemned to death.” Didn’t poet John Donne once said a similar thing, though worded differently: “No man (woman) is an island...”
For my Filipino readers, here’s one interesting information about this film which I found in Wikipedia:
The Tagalog version is narrated by actress Sharon Cuneta; it was entitled Penguin, Penguin, Paano Ka Ginawa? (English: "Penguin, Penguin, How Were You Made?") with the English title as the subtitle; this may be an allusion to a Philippine novel and movie, Bata, Bata, Paano Ka Ginawa? (English: "Child, Child, How Were You Made?")
