The Free Radical

Deer has certainly been very prominent lately… but then, when are they not? They’re in our neighbourhoods, wandering down the streets, sleeping in our gardens, nibbling on our perennials, chasing our dogs and semi-feral children. I swear I saw one the other day checking for mail in the bank of mailboxes on the corner! (Who issued that key?) We’ve been infiltrated!

Even out in the forest, there’s just no getting away from them! Evidence of their millings and moseyings zig-zags the forest path at every turn. I have no quarrel with Deer. Symbolically they represent the ‘gentle lure of nature’ and the ‘benign initiation into Forest enchantments.’ Who could take issue with that?

But when Deer shows up on my front lawn, right beside my truck, looking like this… one begins to pay closer attention! Is this some warning message from the Fairmont Hot Springs mafia? (Better than a horse’s head in my bed!) Oh wait, there is no Fairmont mafia… Or is this more akin to drawing a tarot card and having it appear upside-down in the spread, suggesting the opposite of its traditional meaning? (Bad juju?)

In all actuality and seriousness, this is quite likely the work of Riley, the neighbour dog. I’m pretty sure that in his fuzzy little mind that leaving a deer skull and spine in my front yard is just the most neighbourly thing he could fathom doing. After all, Sitka is just one of three bitches living at my house, and Riley’s always been a bit of a dirty old mutt… He’s always looking to get some! And truth be told, Sitka was obviously appreciative!

To me the message is clear: we are not moving calmly and peaceably into the Golden Age… and its novel array of benign enchantments. Oh sure, that’s indeed where we’re headed, but not without a few more hapless bankers preferring death over peace and prosperity for all… and the dire protestations of other various murderous psychopaths making their own righteous fuss. To some of the most twisted and bepretzeled minds of these trying times, the Golden Age is just too damned abhorrent to even contemplate.

But– and I mean this in the most caring, peaceful and loving way– fuck ’em! We’re moving on anyway!