I’m watching Madagascar 
with the boys—hilarious 
hip city zoo animals end up 
in Africa but long to come 
home to the Central Park Zoo.  
With the emergence of zoos, 
pet keeping and animal toys, 
John Berger explains that animals
were slowly disappearing from 
our daily lives. When the boys 
take a bath, Luke stretches his 
long young thin body under 
the warm water and we play 
with little action figures 
and plastic frogs. Then I put 
my feet into the tub, singing 
row row row your boat gently 
down the stream. Later 
it’s raining and we’re together 
under an umbrella, walking 
through the park. Surely, 
radioactive ocean water 
from the Fukushima Daiichi 
nuclear plant will migrate 
around the globe and even if we 
don’t die this year, we will 
all die eventually, so for now, 
let’s hold each other loosely.