A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

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I look closely at the image and cannot concentrate on what I perceive. It seems insignificant to me to describe its external appearance or the feelings that may arise from my sensitive spirituality. I don't know why, but I find it much more interesting to determine what the person who chose this disturbing animal was thinking, what guidelines they took into account, presenting it to us as an attractive excuse to write. It disturbs me in a strange way to think that a human being who has at their disposal countless photographs containing the most dissimilar situations and elements of all kinds, who must have very well-defined purposes, chooses that one and not another of the many figures before their eyes.

What caught his attention at first glance? Was he impressed by the gorilla's magnificent coat or its imposing size, as suggested by the composition of the photograph? This is probably the case, because it is no secret that human beings love to admire these immense creatures created by nature to reiterate, as the proud species we are, the superiority conferred upon us by our intelligence, our ability to dominate everything around us for our own benefit and to allow us to evolve. So the immense size or exuberant beauty of another living being matters little, since none can ever match our power of reason.

The choice of this unique hominid may have been based, on the other hand, if the person who made it paid close attention to detail, on that expressive gaze that suggests that the gorilla is communicating with someone who, of course, we cannot see. There is a mixture of tenderness and mischief in its eyes that humanizes it and awakens in the observer a certain empathy with that way of expressing childish discontent; a cautious disagreement that is also portrayed in the attitude of spoiledness drawn by the lips... Did the person who selected this image think about all that, or was it just a careless act to fulfill their task?