"Tyger! Tyger! burning bright ... "

The Tiger is considered to be a very powerful symbol in Oriental astrology.   Because I want my youngest grandson, whose heritage is a mixture of Asian, European and North African cultures, to be strong against the many "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" he will encounter in life, I have often thought of and referred to him as "Prince Tiger."  If anything at this stage, he is a very cuddly cub.  Imagining him as a tiger in any way boggles the mind.

Over the past several weeks, very sordid stories have entered the public consciousness about another young man.  Like me, his mother wanted nothing but the best for him.  She knew that he would have to be especially strong against everything that he would have to face in life.  Because of that, she deliberately chose to name him "Tiger."  Her Tiger accomplished magnificent things and has served as a role model to inspire many.

Unfortunately, the Tiger symbol also has a dark side that needs to be mastered.  That dark side has not served that unfortunate young man well.  Nor have those humans who should have known better and who enabled his bad behavior.  Those individuals are responsible for their own actions and their own accounts will undoubtedly be settled one day.  In the meantime, I hope that the young man sincerely accepts the help that he needs in order to turn his life around again.

But I want our own little Prince, who is not actually named Tiger, to have many of the attributes of that powerful symbol so that he too will be strong in life.  So that there will hopefully not be such an obvious link to the now infamous Tiger and, hopefully, no corresponding fall from grace later on, from now on I choose to refer to him as "Prince Tyger."

"The Tyger" is the name of a very famous poem by the English classical poet, William Blake.  It is strange and wonderful and is among the most quoted of English poems, although most remember primarily the first and last verses, which are the same except for one word.

"Tyger!  Tyger! burning bright

In the forests of the night,

What immortal hand or eye

Could [Dare] frame thy fearful symmetry?"

The "Tyger" referred to is generally understood to be a metaphor, but there are differing interpretations of that metaphor.  Blake also wrote what is generally considered to be a "sister" poem called "The Lamb."  People generally interpret "The Lamb" as innocence, good, serenity, even as God (Blake was a very religious person even though he was not too enthusiastic about organized religion), whereas "The Tyger" is often understood to signify experience, turmoil, even to some, evil, i.e., entirely the opposite of "The Lamb."  For one person's thoughtful interpretation, see here.   Interestingly, he does not necessarily see "The Tyger" as evil, nor do I.  He sees rather the "transcendent mystery at the very heart of creation -- and a certain terrible beauty."  That is an interesting choice of words and evokes for me the duality of human nature.  How can man at once create such things as strange and wonderful as the Bamyan Buddhas, for instance, and, once having created, then destroy them?  We see such dichotomies on a daily basis, dichotomies that exist even within the same individuals, incomprehensible dichotomies similar to those represented in the very unfortunate Tiger who is currently in the headlines.  But there is not really an "either-or" answer to them;  the world is neither entirely black nor entirely white.  It is much more complex.  Indeed, we humans are much more complex.

These are very weighty considerations to place on the tiny shoulders of an unsuspecting 16-month-old.  But my precious Prince Tyger will no doubt see, have to confront and understand such dichotomies in his own life and the lives of others, hopefully with compassion, when he is old enough to understand what they are.  For that, he will need all the strength that he can get.  So, if "Tyger" helps him, so much the better.