The Penguins

The march of penguins : A story of survival and of love.
It is funny how we think of love something only us humans are capable of. 'The March of the Penguins' is a story of the march the penguins undertake to the procreate and what they undergo to have their younglings make it. It is an amazing piece of work.
The music, the photography, the narration. You are mesmerized by these clumsy creatures and a landscape that is closer to the 8 bit color than the 32 bit world that we live in.
The story of the movement of the male and female penguins to the Antarctic wasteland, where they mate, take turns taking care of the egg and then the young and fetching food. The treacherous weather, the life against all odds. Narrated by Morgan Freeman. I can't think of anyone else they could have picked to tell the story. You can hear hope, despair, acceptance, stoicism, wisdom, humor and a slight east coast accent.
The story leaves me breathless; these creatures undergo so much to bring life? Many of them die! Mother Nature puts in us an instinct so strong, that the life of the little one becomes more important than that of the progenitor. Human beings are no different. The journey from a zygote to a full grown human baby is more invasive to a mothers body than a growing cancer. The fetus pushes all internal organs, distends the skin and muscle, squishes the stomach to a fraction of its size, puts unbelievable load on the heart, lungs, kidneys... The heart pumps upto twice as much blood, all the ligaments in the body relax enough to bend and cave to the growing baby. The survival and growth of the baby wreaks havoc on the mothers body and the body co-operates! The birth is a miracle. How that baby pushes thru the tiny birth canal and all those bones and emerges into the new bright world with a scream ( and an APGAR of perfect 10) is astounding. In this day and age of modern science and technological marvels, it is amazing to witness something as illogical and low tech as the creation of another human being. Suddenly the human body becomes something sublime. It is not just another clothes hanger, it has a purpose. The most primeval of them all; of creating life and... of sustaining it. It becomes mystical and pragmatic all at once.
The penguins take care of the young, the mother, does lay the egg but 'but in one of natures most endearing role reversals' the father takes care of the egg. After two long months during which the males eat nothing, the eggs begin to hatch. Penguins are lucky the male gets to participate in bringing the young to the world as much as the mother. The human beings are not so lucky, males get to stand by and watch helplessly. I have, over the years heard a number of my male friends hypothesizing women's superiority over men. Most of them are complete baloney, except for one. My best friend from my undergrad once told me 'I have to depend upon a woman to make me feel like a complete human being, to feel what it is to be a father'. I had no wisecracks for him.