To have the heart of a lion is to be courageous and also something more, it suggests a hint of nobility or majesty with that courage. To be both brave and proud, to face your fears with your head held high and to give no sign that you are quaking in every muscle and will probably have to change your pants after the first unexpected sound. It does not mean that you have to be a good person. Richard the Lionheart, the inspiration behind all of this, was apparently a bit of a heel. He tried to overthrow his father, then revolted against his brother and pledged his undying allegiance to his father but of course he was a liar liar pants on fire. Because it was only a matter of time before he and daddy were at it again and he had in for the Jews, he was a total anti-Semite. He also decided that it would be a very good idea to go off to the Middle East and kill a lot Muslims in the name of Christianity and the crusades. But everyone remembers his military reputation and his gallantry and his chivalry. Steven Runciman says of him that, “he was a bad son, a bad husband and bad king, but a gallant and splendid soldier.” That’s being lionhearted.
The hearts of rabbits. Sound at all appealing or does it sound a little weak and wussy? Ever read “Watership Down”? There are the gutsiest little rabbits in the world in that book and in case you were wondering, they’re not entirely made up. If you have every owned a rabbit, properly, you will understand. They are territorial and very protective of what is theirs. They are stubborn and resistant to change. They are slow to love and temperamental as anything but once they do love they will love forever. They are feisty and contrary to popular opinion they can be quite fierce. You try making a rabbit go to bed when it doesn’t want to and see if you survive without losing any of your 6 litres of blood. To have the heart of a rabbit would entail being determined and stubborn, being brave when you have to be but also being smart enough to know when to run, knowing the value of love and not bestowing it lightly and being someone that no one ought to cross. That’s not a bad thing to be by any manner of means.
What about the heart of a warthog? Yeah, I don’t know anything about warthogs except what I saw in The Lion King and I have an idea that might be slightly Disneyfied. I don’t think that they really sing and befriend meerkats. And the world is all the poorer for it.
You could have the heart of a vulture. That’s quite an interesting comparison. When one thinks of vultures one immediately thinks of death and scavengers and ugliness. The birds do not bring out warm and fuzzy feelings in even the most kind hearted and gentle of us. But let us take a closer look at what they really are. They are survivors. They are designed specifically to survive harsh conditions (which seems kind of cruel when you think about it like that). They do have a pecking order, literally, and they do have to fight for what they eat, and they do have to withstand extreme heat, and they do sometimes eat gross rotting food but they survive it all.
People who are survivors are also not necessarily nice people. Sometimes to do what you have to in order to survive you have to sacrifice certain human aspects of yourself. We all do it to a certain degree and if you think that you don’t, just think how many times you have turned a blind eye to some poor needy soul on the street. That kind of apathy requires a sacrifice of something human and we all do it. Every single one of us. Vultures also take advantage of opportunities, they might start feeding on something that is not quite dead yet but that might as well be.
Some people are opportunists as well, especially to that degree, where they can’t wait but have to dive right in before the time is right. Or they might take advantage of things that result in pain to others. The heart of a vulture, on close examination is not really a good thing to have.
The hearts of animals work very well in their own breasts; they do not always translate entirely well into human form. Even the ones that sound very impressive and that you would think are the ones to be admired have their drawbacks, being lionhearted for example. One needn’t stick only to animals’ hearts; all animal characteristics that humans try to personalise are backhanded compliments in the end. To be a sly fox implies both quick wit and something twisty, slippery and oily that leaves an unpleasant aftertaste on the mind. There are other expressions but this one’s tired brain cannot think of them at the moment.
In order to see these hearts and characteristics where they belong, in the animals that they belong to, one can easily pop down to one’s nearest African country, the further South the better and book a safari and/or camping trip in one of the many game parks that abound in the region. The experience is unforgettable, the animals are magnificent and the hospitality is out of this world.
Sandra wrote this article for the online marketers Outlook south africa safari one of the most experienced safari tour providers in SA
