the bird on fire

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Living Like Raccoons

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PVS alumnus Peter Kadel (‘18) now attends Virginia Tech. When here, he was a beloved blogger and, among other things, an AP English Language student. In AP Lang, Peter [was forced to] read Annie Dillard’s essay “Living Like Weasels.” An excerpt of Dillard’s essay is reprinted below. Peter reached out to us–seems he had a “weasel” moment while walking to his dining hall. Happily, he thought of us and captured it in writing.


“Living Like Weasels”

by Annie Dillard

The sun had just set. I was relaxed on the tree trunk, ensconced in the lap of lichen, watching the lily pads at my feet tremble and part dreamily over the thrusting path of a carp. A yellow bird appeared to my right and flew behind me. It caught my eye; I swiveled around–and the next instant, inexplicably, I was looking down at a weasel, who was looking up at me.

Weasel! I’d never seen one wild before. He was ten inches long, thin as a curve, a muscled ribbon, brown as fruitwood, soft-furred, alert. . . .

The weasel was stunned into stillness as he was emerging from beneath an enormous shaggy wild rose bush four feet away. I was stunned into stillness twisted backward on the tree trunk. Our eyes locked, and someone threw away the key.

Peter’s Weasel Moment . . .

Annie Dillard’s essay “Living Like Weasels” describes a moment when she made eye contact and had a connection with a weasel. I had dismissed this as odd like I had done with every other thing she wrote. But, I was walking to a dining hall from class and heard a rustling noise from an underground drainage grate, not in much of a hurry, I went over to investigate. As I stood over the grate, the source of the rustling scurried into the underground pipe, seemingly gone forever. But something made me decide to crouch above the grate and wait for the critter to show itself. Seconds later, as if it shared my curiosity, a little triangular head with black and white stripes on the face and grey on the head peeked out from the pipe. The triangular head turned to look up at me, and I found myself eyes locked with a raccoon. I was surprised and enthralled by this little creature. For a few moments we just stared at each other. Then he darted off to continue about his day, and I stood up and went on my way. It wasn’t till later I realized I HAD JUST HAD MY WEASEL MOMENT! But instead of a weasel, it was a raccoon. Now I realize the importance of Dillard’s piece; we all have the chance to experience that moment. And the animal we have it with reflects us. Dillard got the tenacious, scrappy and clever weasel. I got the mischievous, rambunctious, and curious raccoon, a pretty accurate reflection of myself. –Peter Kadel

A Guide to Gift Giving

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By Peter Kadel

ATTENTION! ATTENTION! The holiday season is here, and if you’re not a crazy person living in the desert then winter is in full swing, which means it’s the time to celebrate the things that really matter like religious holidays, the appropriation of religious holidays, commercialization of religious holidays, and arguments over coffee cups that support religious holidays. But, it’s important to remember not to use any religion-specific greetings because winter isn’t about religion. Winter is about buying stuff for people and telling them weeks in advance (as in “Oh, I bought you a Christmas gift”) to guilt them into getting you something. Winter is about just letting yourself go into hibernation, emerging only to have awkward encounters with your extended family. Winter is about forgetting all of your healthy life choices and subsequently collapsing into a pit of guilt, cookie crumbs, and despair–once swimsuit season hits. However, the most important part of the winter holiday is gift giving, or more accurately, gift receiving. But as the old adage goes, “Nothing in life is free.” So, you’ll have to give gifts so people feel obligated to give you gifts. Luckily, there are several holidays in the coming days for you to use as an excuse to give gifts.

Hanukkah is the longest and is relatively well known, but it ended yesterday, so there isn’t any time to get your gift and then receive a gift from the recipient, and so your best bet is to just convert to Christianity and participate in Christmas because most of us don’t know when Kwanzaa is (unless you read Harlow Berny’s post last week) or what it’s about. After your baptism, it’s time to go buy gifts for your unsuspecting “friends.” In this process, it is important to remember that the purpose of giving these gifts is to encourage your “friends” to give you gifts, so you need to find a balance between cheap and meaningful. Some examples of cheap and meaningful gifts are decorative shot glasses, stickers from other countries, fancy paper, and potatoes–because everyone loves potatoes. If you want to improve your chances of getting a good gift instead of a potato, –because who wants a lousy potato?–you should make sure the gifts have some kind of personal connection to the intended recipients. For example, if your “friend” likes the color red, give them a jar of blood, and if you want to make the gift really personal, make sure it’s their blood-type! If none of these examples are effective in guilting your “friends” into giving you stuff this holiday season, then you should recognize that you are in a “friendship” founded on manipulation and deceit, and you should end the “friendship” immediately.

 

Editor: AJ Patencio