The text on the image reads
If I could touch horns with a rhino, what would life be?
The second stanza of the Rhinoceros Sutra is all about desires, about wanting things. It's frustrating, or even painful, sometimes to not get what we want. Perhaps it's even more frustrating to be told, societally, to want certain things and either not be able to have them or not actually want them at all while still being pressured to chase after them. If there are things that we know we don't need, know we don't want, or know we can't have no matter what we do, is there any reason to torture ourselves with pursuing them?
there are allurements;
on the heels of allurement, this pain.
Seeing allurement's drawback,
wander alone
like a rhinoceros.
I will never grow a horn, gain a literal ton of weight and several inches in height, turn into an actual rhino, and go galloping around a savannah or foraging in a jungle with my odd-toed ungulate friends. None of that is even remotely sane to believe as a possibility. No worries, though! I can stay a human and go visit rhinos in their natural habitat. That just takes money and luck... and the safe-as-we-can-manage-it end to the pandemic.
It may not always feel like I am in control of what I want or how badly I want something. I'm talking about wanting, not needing. I need to breathe, eat, and sleep. I want to breathe ocean air, eat chocolate, and dream of rhinos leaping over the moon while I sleep. With work, I can reprioritize, de-prioritize, or alter what I want. It is not an easy task to wander alone like a rhinoceros, but it may be useful.
I should probably also add that I don't often want what I'm told I'm supposed to want. This made/makes some aspects of my life easier, like reprioritizing desires, and other aspects harder. It's a better road for me, though.
Today's ride through my closet resulted in my polka-splotch dress and digging up a pair of bee socks that I forgot I owned! This really is probably I think nearly certainly the last pair of bee socks I have tucked away.
And, you know, since it's the 5th of May, HAPPY CINCO DE RHINO!
If you have a spare $5 not being consumed by the coronapocalypse, consider donating it to help some of our ungulate friends through the International Rhino Foundation, or any other non-profit you trust.