[lit-ideas] Re: I think I'll come back as a squirrel next time

-----Original Message-----
From: David Ritchie <ritchierd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Aug 28, 2004 2:53 AM
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: I think I'll come back as a squirrel next time

A life of sisyphusistic nut lugging, while threatened by dogs, foxes, fleas,
eagles, snakes and rabies?



A.A.  Boy, did you miss my point.  But I suspect everybody did.  I too always 
saw squirrels as just a pesky rodent that does a lot of busy work just to 
survive.  And small to boot, and who likes small.  Lions.  Elephants.  Bulls.  
This is macho.  This is what people put on their shields and crests.

But this summer I have changed my mind.  Squirrels are in fact, bar none, the 
happiest creatures on the face
of the earth.  You're going to tell me that Lance Armstrong peddles thousands 
of miles at *race speeds* because he has to?  Or that he even works at it?  No, 
he loves it, he's talented, it's natural to him.  That's what squirrels are 
like.  They are pure athletes.   They *love* what they do, or they would have 
killed themselves long ago.  If they were human they would run consecutive 
triathalons and stop only because it got dark.  I wouldn't be surprised if 
Lance Armstrong isn't a reincarnated squirrel.



D.R. Sign me up.

It would relieve me of deans.


A.A.  Exactly my point, that we humans work hard, whether for success or 
failure.  We are the ones who roll that stone up that hill.  We too are 
threatened with our own version of nut lugging when we go to work every day, 
or, worse, don't go to work every day.  Instead of dogs and foxes, we have the 
threat of losing our jobs, getting into a car accident, a skiing accident, 
dying of stuffed arteries, a terrorist attack, you name it.  Failing any of 
those, we always have old age hanging over our heads.  We are threatened by 
microbes, sexually transmitted diseases, varied and sundry epidemics, 
antibiotic resistance.

Humans actually are much more like cats.  Cats are pure predators.  I watch my 
housebound cat, trapped behind the screen as the chipmunks on the other side of 
it mess with her head.  She quivers with desire to get one of them, kill it and 
eat it.  Her missions in life are, get the chipmunk, and get petted by humans.  
Likewise, humans exist in a mostly adversarial relationship with other humans 
(you would share your paycheck with someone outside your family? I don't think 
so) and to get stroked by other humans.  Squirrels could care less about humans 
or any other animals.  They differ from us in that we struggle (life is nasty, 
short whatever) and then we die, while squirrels are manically, deliriously 
happy, and then they die.

So, be sure to take your vitamins today.  They'll help give you some energy.


Andy Amago




David Ritchie
a spiffy SAAB owner once more in
Portland, Oregon,
where West Nile virus, fortunately, is fashionably late

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