Locking Horns

Photo by Michael Jones, Denali National Park National Geographic

Most times, it starts this way during the rut when the bulls are fighting over mating rights.  Most times, the bigger moose wins and the littler moose runs off with a few scrapes and bruises.   Sometimes however, when the species 'alces alces' lock horns they do so literally.  In cases like these, they end up like this:

Note that there are two skulls here.
I took this picture at Eielson Visitor's Center in Denali.

Some time ago, these two bulls got so wrapped up in an argument their antlers became inseparably intertwined.  This situation is more than a predicament, a dilemma, a plight, a quandary. No doubt bloody, sore, out of breath, and mad, they will face their fate--probably a slow death by starvation--together, eyeball to eyeball, looking into a mirror of sorts and seeing only one thing; arch enemy numero uno. Not even in death will they part; they'll still be together after the wolves have found them, still together after the eagles and other carrion eaters have paid a call, and still together after the little field mice have sharpened their teeth and ingested their calcium will these beasts remain 'locked for all time'.

A monument to this natural imbroglio sets directly beneath the unfurled red, white and blue U.S. flag at the Eielson Visitor Center at mile 66 within the confines of the immense Denali National Park and Preserve.  It is in the shadows of the spectacular 20,320 foot high Mount McKinley, or Denali, the Great One, as named by the Athabaskan natives.  On the day I visited Eielson however, like most days, the majority of the mountain couldn't be seen, as at least the top 15,000 feet were covered by clouds.

For weeks I’ve been pondering how to write about this 'Locked for All Time' bestial phenomenon and how I might tie it to current events, politics or culture in some edgy or profound way.  I’ve thought about the log jamb we’re in in Afghanistan.  I’ve thought the enduring trade disputes with our business associates like China or the EU, and the no-win type situations like immigration and drugs wars. Anyone (everyone?) can (will?) make the easy comparison between these poor beasts and the Reps and Dems of Washington after having endured their recent tete-a-tete debates regarding our national debt.  

 

The United States, in its foreign affairs and domestically (and even ourselves as harried individual citizens), seems so involved in the daily bouts of locking horns that the good things about our country are often forgotten and go unmentioned. Why? Because the clouds of petty self-interest, rampant self-righteousness, ignorance and fear hide the grandeur that is still there somewhere and shines through sometimes. One can't see Denali's greatness very often but it is always there looming in the background and, despite everything that points to the contrary, the same goes with the good 'ol US of A.

Eielson Visitor's Center, Denali Alaska
Photo by Ellen Humpert