A horse is a horse, of course, of course

That is, of course, unless the horse is the famous Barbaro, the star-crossed Kentucky Derby winner that was euthanized yesterday after a long rehabilitation struggle following his disastrous injury at the Preakness Stakes. The horse’s demise led most of the national news casts yesterday, even as other, more consequential events rage around the globe. The cynic asks: why would that be?

I’m guessing that the overwhelming presence of cynics, and cynicism, is why the story gained so much attention. It is easy to argue that Barbaro’s potential value as a stud horse would lead an owner to take the sorts of heroic measures that the horse has endured; there’s no question it’s a lucrative business. But I think it’s something else. We live in a time that seems to have less happy endings than we’d like. No matter whom we are, or where we are, there often seems to be an overarching narrative that someone is framing for us. We receive a lot of stories that fit this narrative and, too often, there aren’t a lot of happy endings. After the initial horror of the injury, we heard periodically about Barbaro’s progress and prospects for recovery and the story continued to maintain a lot of interest. Still, the sad ending contains a few lessons. Barbaro’s owners did not give up. They took extraordinary measures to keep their prized colt alive. They clearly loved the horse as a horse, not as an investment. The genuine affection that the horse’s plight engendered is a reminder that while it is easy to be cynical, sentiment is still powerful and useful.