Mostly I feel like the universe is out of whack and lacking balance, but here's one area where I think things are perfectly aligned:
I don't like squirrels. Although they are kind of cute with their fat cheeks packed with nuts and the way that they hop (not walk or run, like normal animals) through the grass, they eat all my birdseed, chase sweet little birds away from the feeder, and do this really annoying thing where, if they're running up a tree trunk because I am walking towards them (in a non-threatening manner, of course!), they keep circling the tree trunk so that they're always on the opposite side of the trunk from me. For some reason, this annoys me most of all. Why are they hiding? It just seems so psychotic!
With their jerky little movements and their beady little eyes, they really creep me out and I am nervous around them, especially city squirrels who really don't seem to have a healthy respect for my personal space. I think they're scheming something, and in my mind it involves a "squirrel swarm" in some way.
Now, where is the balance part? Well, for all my feelings of animosity towards squirrels and for all the times I've been nervous when two squirrels come running towards me at interestingly enough the exact same time (it's how all swarms start, isn't it?), I feel pretty confident that they don't particularly like me either and I make them nervous, too. I take a run at them sometimes just to test my theory and, yep, they seem pretty worried about me coming right for them.
It's a good feeling, that feeling of two-way hostility with the squirrels. If I didn't dislike them so much, I might admire them for their honesty and openness. I like to believe they feel the same way about me.
1 comment:
Your story reminds me of "What Was I Scared of?" by Dr. Seuss which tells the tale of a character who repeatedly meets up with an empty pair of pale-green pants. The creature, who is the narrator, is initially afraid of the pants, which are able to stand on their own despite the lack of a wearer. However when he screams for help and the pants also start to cry, he realizes that "They were just as scared as I!" After that the empty pants become good friends with the narrator, and are no longer afraid of each other.
This story teaches the lesson that you should not be afraid of things you are not familiar with. Like Squirrels (which I always have a very difficult time spelling..."two r's, one l" I tell myself using your technique,)
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