19: Duty

Let us think how to make a better world— not to lay more concrete on the earth, not to build more steel and glass enclosures, not to hate and not to fear, but to behave like children of God, accepting the nature that feeds the birds and lets them freeze stiff on winter branches. In this work, the raccoon is our teacher. She neither hates nor fears us, and she harbors no petty attachment to property, not to lawns that cover delicious grubs, not to goldfish swimming in backyard ponds, not to catfood left out in the cold night. She bares her teeth at the kitchen window and leaves her scat of berry seeds on the roof. The laws of nature, morality, and logic impel the raccoon to live as she lives in the face of our glass and concrete, to protect and teach her little ones. But does she do so grudgingly? Can desire for any conflicting good dissuade the raccoon from her certain path?

Hole punch