When I was in my early teens, I lived in a cage for a week.
Let me back up here and give you some context. I was close to home and volunteered for the assignment. My father was the director of the Birmingham Zoo and we were very involved in the movement for saving the environment including having clean air and water (yes younger people, this issue has been around a long time. We make strides forward and then take steps backward over and over again.)
One of the organizations we worked with was called GASP (Greater Birmingham Alliance to Stop Pollution.) To make a statement, it was decided to put people in one of the empty cages in the large primates building for a little display/ experiment.
Several of the members, adults who were mostly scientists and activists, would live in the cage for the week, leaving their trash around to show the visiting public how much litter is created in a week. I begged to be included and everyone agreed, except for my mother who got out voted.
As a child growing up inside the fences of the zoo, with no neighborhood kids to play with, I spent most of my time around adults. I was fine with that. I have always loved being around people who are older and wiser than I and listening and learning as much as possible from them.
The idea of spending a week with these people, basically camping in a display seemed like fun to me.
We had access to the employee bathroom down the hall from the enclosure, we were inside and in air conditioning and we could leave whenever we wanted, although the idea was to stay as long as we felt that we could endure.
I remember hearing discussions of experiments where animals (rats I believe) had been crowded into small cages and would soon become belligerent and violent because of the overcrowding. The study showed that being too crowded made animals and people feel threatened and angry. This was to done to show how overpopulation could someday adversely affect the planet.
When I think back on it, what seemed like a fun adventure to a young girl was an experiment itself. To see how we handled being there together that long, eating nothing but fast food and having the wrappers and bottles we ate from, piling up around us, made us get to know each other very well. It also made us very wary of each other and irritable.
I don’t remember exactly, but since my family was at home just a few feet away, I think I might have slipped off a few times. The person I am today has a hard time imagining not showering for a week, although as a teenager I might have loved it. I also have a tough time imagining eating fast food for a week, although I definitely ate more of that back then than I do now.
Overall, I remember it being a challenging experience that made an impression on me. Although I had the advantages of freedom when needed, air conditioning against the Alabama heat, people I knew to share the space with and enough space to stretch out at night or separate myself a bit to read occasionally, it was still an uncomfortable feeling sitting in a cage. Since I was doing it for a purpose, a cause, it seemed less creepy than it might have felt. My father came by to check on things several times a day, the large summer crowds visiting the zoo watched us during the day and the people in the cage were longtime family friends. I never felt threatened because I knew I was being watched over and cared for.
It still left me feeling unsure, closed in, isolated and violated. I felt the lack of privacy, the lack of hygiene, the lack of freedom. I felt the loss of fresh air, green trees and blue sky. I felt the need for more exercise and some time alone. I felt that although I had known these people for years, they were getting too close, I needed a break from them.
Even in what could be considered ideal conditions, the environment of being closed up with people for extended periods of time cause feelings that stay with you for the rest of your life. It affects you in ways that are hard to quantify and that may not show up right away. It is definitely a life changing experience, mostly not in a good way, especially as a young person.
Even with this experience in my past, I cannot imagine what it would feel like if I had been there with people I didn’t know. To be there without my consent or my parents’ consent. To not have the option to leave when I needed to. To not have space to get away from others for awhile. To not have my dad come by to check with me, chat with me, bring me a treat or a clean t-shirt.
Even with this weak point of reference, it is hard to imagine how it must feel to be in a strange country, with a different language being spoken around you. I knew that my experience was going to last for one week. It is hard to imagine what it would feel like if I had no idea if it would ever end. I knew my life would go right back to normal as soon as I walked out of the cage. I can’t imagine how I would handle not knowing if life would ever continue outside of being locked up right now.
No matter who you are or what you believe, it isn’t hard to see that what I experienced was nothing compared to what other people are facing. And yet seeing news stories sent me right back to that experience 50 years ago. That feeling never went away. I can’t imagine what the repercussions of all of this will be for the future.
