Zookeepers know it

Live together only when in love

Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash

Two pandas playing in the snow that had blanketed Washington over the weekend.

I couldn’t resist the clickbait on BBC, and the video was predictably adorable. But I didn’t expect to also gain an insight into love and cohabitation.

What the video doesn’t show is the panda couple together. As if to preempt a barrage of questions and indignant comments, the BBC offered this commentary:

The zoo explained why the pair are kept in separate enclosures: "Giant pandas tend to prefer their own space and usually only share habitat when they're ready to reproduce, which is why they are housed separately at the zoo."

Some of the happiest post-parenting folks I know have reached the same conclusion.

Mancaves, set up and used without blame or guilt, are an antidote to bickering and divorce. They free us from inane conflict and the need to coordinate trivia like who’ll buy eggs today. They give us the peace of mind to be creative, or just chill.

But it takes emotional maturity to not equate moving out with an end of care or friendship.

It takes an open mind to see living apart not as a repudiation of the life together before, but as an invigorating expedition to a new dimension of oneself.

BTW, if you like pandas, the BBC video and commentary are here.