Perhaps it’s easier to accept another creature’s enclosure once we’ve grown comfortable with our own.
Field Notes
Most of us would never choose to spend our lives inside a cage. Yet many of us move through routines, workplaces, expectations, and social systems that quietly shape where we go, what we do, and how we live. Those boundaries aren’t the same as a gorilla’s enclosure, but they can become so familiar that we stop noticing them altogether. When our own limitations begin to feel ordinary, it’s easier to overlook the limitations we’ve created for other living beings. Sometimes the most powerful cages are the ones that have come to feel completely normal.