This week will be bad, just like last week, and the week before that, and the week before that. Even if it isn’t bad for you personally (and I hope it’s not) around you, the world will be melting, literally and figuratively, and the tattered gossamer veil that hangs between us and the underworld will tear just a little bit more. I say this not to upset you, but to remind you that in times of horror and chaos, it is important to cling to moments of peace and beauty wherever you may find them. Moments, for example, like Jurassic Park actor Sam Neill doing yoga with his pig.
“So The Pig and I do our stretching routine together these mornings,” Neill tweeted on Sunday. “We take turns while the other coaches. Here we demonstrate the “Upward Facing Dog”. Or “The Cobra” to the Pig. [He’s more Yoga than Pilates.] ‘Just 3 more Sam !”Yes coach.’ Omm.” [sic]
If you find it rude that Neill only refers to the pig as The Pig, first of all, calm down. Second of all, Neill clarified in a later tweet that the pig has a name, but he’s embarrassed by it, so Neill doesn’t use it much (it’s Angelica, and it’s a long story). If you find it odd that Neill has access to a yoga pig, perhaps you were unaware that Neill is the proprietor of a vineyard in New Zealand called Two Paddocks, and on the property he has various cute animals, like Pig, and also Charlie, his duck. Now you know.
Neill and The Pig, whom we will not call Angelica in accordance with his wishes, seem to be having so much fun together. Behind them, ominous-looking clouds hint at a coming storm, but Neill and Pig don’t care — right now, it’s dry, and the grass is soft enough to play in, and they’re together. In a while, maybe, it will rain and they will have to go inside and deal with the week ahead, but until then, they are clinging to this moment, and throwing it out into the world for us to cling to as well, a joyous lifeline in the choppy sea of existence. May we all find more moments like this. May we all find our own yoga pigs.
