Winter is calling!
By Johna Till Johnson
Photo by Vladimir Brezina
Today’s daily post is Calling.
Tomorrow is winter solstice. Days will begin to get longer, and it’s a good time to reflect about the year gone by as we’re about to bid it farewell.
For today’s post, I decided to look for one of the many photos Vlad took of an animal with its mouth open. When I came across this one I immediately realized it had the right seasonal “feel” (even though Gus the polar bear is actually yawning.)
But the story itself calls to me, or rather the story-within-a-story: About six years ago Vlad and I went to the Central Park Zoo, along with my best friend and two of her daughters. Vlad brought the good camera and took some memorable photos. We remarked at the time what “characters” these animals were—quintessential New Yorkers!
Vlad also wrote a later blog post just about Gus, the polar bear. Apparently, like all true New Yorkers, Gus was neurotic: For no reason that anyone could understand, he took up obsessively swimming laps in the pool.
For 12 hours a day.
The zookeepers got him therapy, and eventually his symptoms tapered off (though they never disappeared entirely). He died in the summer of 2013 and was greatly mourned.
A part of old New York passed away back then, and has never been replaced. There are no longer polar bears at the Central Park Zoo, which many would say is a good thing for them, if not us.
And of course, Vlad is now gone too, and with him another small part of old New York.
So really, it’s the past that calls to me in this image.
A past of sunny spring days full of vanished polar bears and other animal “characters” vamping for the camera, and of the careful, enthusiastic eye that took the photos. A past filled with unexpected discoveries and pleasant surprises.
As Vlad himself put it in the comments, “In happier times, as they say in biographies that end badly (as they all do)…”
Later on Vlad writes, “Sorry to have lost him.”
Indeed!
Vladimir Brezina (RIP) 
Johna Till Johnson
Wind Against Current 