Friday, February 18, 2011

Belated Honorings

Rainbow, the dog, is attracted to the site long before we are. I only notice it because he does. A ring of fur, evidence of a deeply penetrating event. Speculation begins at once. A rabbit? A fox? Some manner of weasel? Couldn’t be a house cat, not this far up the trail. Allan pokes a bendy stick into the ground in the center of the ring. “Well whatever you were, we honor you.” Something we clearly should have done first.

Imagine is we stopped at a fatal car accident and acted like this. “Those look like a banker’s shoes to me. Yeah, but look at that ink stain on his shirt pocket, I think he was an English teacher. Well whatever you did, may God love and keep you.”

From that place on that trail one bodily life was extended and one bodily life ended. Maybe that’s all we need to know. It’s certainly enough information for reverence.

In the end we decided it was probably a bobcat.

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