The Free Radical

(Warning: Some of today’s photos may be less than ideal for appetite stimulation!)

Nature writes the basic narrative while I attend to ornamentation.

Remember these bear tracks from last week?

Well, if this guy is hanging around, claiming this as his preferred territory, it’s only a matter of time before I’d expect to find more definite bear signs in the area… especially now, in the waning period of the Flower Full Moon, when there’s already plenty of new growth on which to feast. (The whole Forest smells of honeysuckle and clover!)

As I’ve mentioned once or thrice, Bear is the natural representative of sovereignty. He answers to no one, taking full personal responsibility for his life here in the Forest… and he knows it. But for a year already, Brother Bear has remained elusive to my visitations, leaving plenty of signs but never being bodily seen. Hence, I have dubbed him the Invisible Bear. It’s as though he keeps reminding us of the importance of sovereignty– having the unencumbered opportunity for self-determination– while simultaneously asking us to look deeply and keenly for the “invisible” ways we are still bound.

Now, having put the fork down and backed away from the Forest Report, you might be thinking to yourself “Hey, the lower portion of Africa there looks a bit squished. What gives?”

Sitka still retains the odd compulsion to be absolutely current with the latest fecal fashions; she just has to be wearing whatever’s trending at the moment. All the really cool dogs are wearing bear shit; didn’t you know? (There are worse shits than bear shit.)

I managed to stop her before she could really work it in between her shoulder blades… and we weren’t too far away from the river. The problem was, however, that I had all three dogs with me, and Sitka and Toby are a couple of real wrestlemaniacs! So while freshly poop-adorned, Sitka proceeded to tackle Toby right into the back of my knees. We went down in a human-hound-hybrid heap! And now my leg was streaked with the urgent scent of sovereignty’s reclamation too! Oh the indignities! I wasn’t about to let it dry there as Nature’s encrusted post-it note, so I used my drinking water to wash it off.

As you can see, the river is fine for poop removal, but somewhat lacks the sparkling clarity of appropriate thirst-quenchingness. Ah well, I survived…

…but I can’t say the same for this poor fellow. At least one of the “Lying Snakes” was dead! (Have you heard the same rumours about elites killing themselves because they genuinely fear the imminent retribution of the masses as their secrets come to light?)

The ants were already all over the scene. They couldn’t offer any explanation as to how the critter had died, but they laid claim to the prize in a heartbeat. (That must’ve been my heart beating because ants don’t really have a heart… just a really cool exoskeleton– two-toned even!)

Uh-oh, I think I may have lost the plot in all this embellishment! Okay, the bottom line is that there will be a forthcoming TOURS message dealing with sovereignty and its relationship to unity. I should have it out quicker than a mass of ants can dismantle a lying snake!