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Why pandas may not suck

Remembering the power of preservation

<p>Lauren's column runs biweekly Fridays. She can be reached at l.jackson@cavalierdaily.com. </p>

Lauren's column runs biweekly Fridays. She can be reached at l.jackson@cavalierdaily.com. 

There is a website called whypandassuck.com that serves as a hub for all literature on why pandas are good for approximately nothing. I referenced it the other night at dinner to support my argument that we should let natural selection run its course with pandas. I realize that as long as the WWF's logo exists, this will not happen — but nevertheless, it is outrageous how much money foreign governments spend to loan pandas from China.

It costs $1 million per year to rent a panda, and there is an additional $600,000 tax for any cubs born in captivity — the objective for any zoo seeking to boost attendance. The problem, however, is that captive pandas become even more useless than wild pandas — which contribute nothing to their ecosystem and are notoriously poor predators — because something about their small, simulated bamboo habitats makes them forget how to reproduce. As a result, pandas from San Diego to Toronto are scheduled by their handlers to watch weekly panda porn and are fed supplements meant to help them get in the mood.

I brought this up at dinner and said, "I mean, imagine how it feels to be the guy who invented panda Viagra or filmed and produced panda porn. Is that what you would want to be the sum contribution of your existence? You devoted hours of your life to developing drugs to help animals that have proved too stupid to survive."

While I would personally find such an endeavor to be a bleak career pursuit, an experience I had the next day in an Israeli museum lent me insight on the power of preservation. I realized just how wrong I was in subscribing to the idea that success is measured in what one produces in his lifetime rather than in what one preserves in his lifetime (though I stand by my claim about pandas).

In the Israel Museum, I spent hours getting lost in rooms upon rooms of art galleries. When leaving, I asked a friend which painting he liked best. He surprised me by saying he had spent so much time in the archeological exhibit that he hadn't made it to the art — adding that he just generally didn't enjoy art museums. What resulted was a long conversation during which I attempted to persuade him that all people should have a reverence for the art that has been loved enough to be preserved and passed down through the ages.

Tongue in cheek, he countered by saying that in such logic I should revere pandas because of those who have devoted their lives to panda preservation. He pointed out that it was hypocritical of me to demand reverence for what I deemed worthy of preservation while simultaneously making jokes about panda porn and the uselessness of a national icon.

What I took away from the conversation is this: there are plenty of people in the world who frankly do not care about the pandas in our lives, or the things we are passionate about despite seeming uselessness to others.

Our generation often overstates the necessity of production without evaluating and giving due merit to the power of preservation. We all want to contribute, and we plague ourselves with questions, like, "What am I creating, starting or adding? How can I innovate, expand, change or make my mark on the world?"

Amid this frenzy to become founders and co-founders, entrepreneurs and owners, it is important we take moments to evaluate what it is precisely that we care enough about to preserve. The key is to identify ourselves as stewards of the stories and passions that motivate us to be contributors to the causes we care about. In doing so, we can find greater inspiration in and reverence for what others before us have labored to preserve — making us more capable contributors in the process.

In a generation which venerates those who produce something tangible, we must remember opportunities to innovate exist because people have devoted their lives to giving us something to innovate upon. We must discover what it is we care about deeply enough to preserve and then work to do so — whether that is cultural tradition, religious heritage, a specific view on morality, an artistic masterpiece...or a panda.

Lauren’s column runs biweekly Fridays. She can be reached at l.jackson@cavalierdaily.com.

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