Cats and cages?
Srila Prabhupada explained: "It is said that every muni has a different angle of vision, and unless a muni differs from other munis, he cannot be called a muni in the strict sense of the term."
A muni means a sage. Sometimes this statement is misused to stifle the creative spirit, which is obviously a natural feature of the spirit soul. After all, the individual spirit soul is like a drop of sea water, and Krishna is like the ocean. Since Krishna is the creator of the entire cosmic manifestation, you'd think we'd have a little creativity constitutionally.
The important context to bear in mind is the sentence that comes before that in the Bhagavad-gita purport where it appears (Bg. 2.56): "The word muni means one who can agitate his mind in various ways for mental speculation without coming to a factual conclusion." (my emphasis).
Anyway, this idea of trying to be different for the sake of being different has never been more applicable than in the area of photos of birds and cages, it seems.
I'm preparing my presentation for Sunday. I'm going to use my video gaming example, and I'm going to segue from there to the bird in a cage example (why do one or the other when you can harness the genius of the "and"?). I've had no problem finding photos on flickr for the video gaming stuff (heaps of shots of Warcraft and Second Life), but do you think I can find a good photo of a bird in a cage?
No way. Cat in a bird cage, human in a bird cage, bird on a cage - anything to be different, to be arty, to be anguished and misunderstood. But different from what? The original concept has become so under-represented that it now represents a departure from the norm.
As Srila Prabhupada once characterized it: "Put your clothes on backwards, walk on your hands, whatever you do, be different."*
Here's an idea to be different from everyone else: take a photo of a bird in a cage.
Thanks.
* sorry if that made you think of Kriss Kross - and uh, sorry if you didn't but you just did now. Always remember Krishna!
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Srila Prabhupada:
Why do you forget that you are always in association with me? When you are helping my missionary activities I am always thinking of you and you are always thinking of me. That is real association.
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cleaning the cage
there's a parrot living with me, but i never kept him in a cage, so i can't take a such a photo. once i was searching for the same thing and finally found an illustration i remembered from the bhagavatam:
this picture is copyrighted by the BBT, though, and you're supposed to ask their permission to use it. (no, i didn't, and i'll have to take it down if they tell me to...)