When A Brave Alligator Is Not Enough

My husband called me into the bedroom excitedly this morning. Not that kind of excitement - I was in the middle of getting the kids ready for school. No, he wanted me to see something on TV.

"Look at this," he said, waving his sock at the television. I looked. A few animals seemed to be gathered around a lake.

"So what is it?" I asked impatiently. The toddler was running around with a vegemite sandwich and no leash, so I knew time was of the essence.

"It's amazing," he said. "An alligator is wrestling a wildebeest away from a lion. They caught it on film."

"Wow!" I enthused, impressed. "Did the alligator save the wildebeest from the lion? That's unbelievable!" My husband looked at me pityingly.

"Yes, Kerri," he said sarcastically. "The alligator rescued the wildebeest and brought it back to his home. Then they all stood around singing 'Circle of Life'."

I looked blank.

"He was just fighting with the lion for food," my husband said. "He was a brave alligator."

I felt a little silly. So the alligator hadn't been freakishly altruistic beyond his reptilian capabilities, he had just been really brave. But then... big deal. What's so amazing about a really brave alligator? Maybe he wasn't even really brave. Maybe he was just really, really hungry. Or maybe alligators take on lions all the time, but it's never filmed, because, well, people would have to be pretty stupid to get near an alligator fighting with a lion?

But then I got to thinking. Maybe I'm just way too harsh. Maybe my expectations are too high.

After all, the world has gone slightly mad. Every day there are wilder stories, every day our imaginations are stretched further. Every day we need bigger and bigger news, and more and more outrageous stories to give us the buzz we're looking for.

It's not enough that Michael Jackson died. He had to be killed by a bizarro doctor who was using weirdo techniques to put him to sleep every night. It's not enough that a girl was kidnapped. She had to have been held captive by a psycho child killer for 18 years, bearing him two children and running his printing business. It's not enough that we have Vegemite. We have to have new Vegemite, with something unlikely added, and the extra bonus of a competition to choose its name.

Maybe it's time we all slowed down. Maybe it's time we appreciated the basics, and looked back to nature for our wonder and delight.

Maybe it's time to take a moment to honour the Brave Alligator.

And the Wildebeest, who gave his life, so that we could dream once more.