BY EMMA SPECTER VOGUE March 17, 2020
Photo: Getty Images
Thanks to the outbreak of the new coronavirus sweeping the globe, many of us are being encouraged to practice social distancing or fully self-quarantine if we can. Given the scale of the pandemic, you’d have to be a Pollyanna-level optimist not to let some anxiety creep in, and we’re all trying our best.
That’s why when something unprecedentedly nice happens it is imperative to seize and cling to it. To that end, when I found out that a group of rockhopper penguins at Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium had taken the building’s closure as an opportunity to go on a field trip around the premises, I let the news radiate fully through my body, bringing me a sense of peace I haven’t felt in days.
https://twitter.com/shedd_aquarium/status/1239248971006185478
“Without guests in the building, caretakers are getting creative in how they provide enrichment to animals,” the aquarium told the Chicago Tribune; in the penguins’ case, this involves waddling around to take a peek at the marine life they’ve unknowingly been sharing premises with all this time.
It’s hard to explain why exactly the penguins’ big day out hit me so hard. Ultimately, though, I think it has something to do with knowing that these sweet little creatures have no idea why they’re suddenly being allowed to have the run of the aquarium. While the rest of us hunker down, Skyping and Zooming one another in an effort to maintain our mental equilibrium, these penguins are innocently having the time of their lives, and really, who would begrudge them that?
Thanks to the outbreak of the new coronavirus sweeping the globe, many of us are being encouraged to practice social distancing or fully self-quarantine if we can. Given the scale of the pandemic, you’d have to be a Pollyanna-level optimist not to let some anxiety creep in, and we’re all trying our best.
That’s why when something unprecedentedly nice happens it is imperative to seize and cling to it. To that end, when I found out that a group of rockhopper penguins at Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium had taken the building’s closure as an opportunity to go on a field trip around the premises, I let the news radiate fully through my body, bringing me a sense of peace I haven’t felt in days.
https://twitter.com/shedd_aquarium/status/1239248971006185478
“Without guests in the building, caretakers are getting creative in how they provide enrichment to animals,” the aquarium told the Chicago Tribune; in the penguins’ case, this involves waddling around to take a peek at the marine life they’ve unknowingly been sharing premises with all this time.
It’s hard to explain why exactly the penguins’ big day out hit me so hard. Ultimately, though, I think it has something to do with knowing that these sweet little creatures have no idea why they’re suddenly being allowed to have the run of the aquarium. While the rest of us hunker down, Skyping and Zooming one another in an effort to maintain our mental equilibrium, these penguins are innocently having the time of their lives, and really, who would begrudge them that?
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