Rabbit Trails

One day, I was taking a walk along the trail of my favorite institution of higher learning.  Wearing a sleeveless shirt and shorts, I had previously been hop(p)ing for a nice, sunny, warm day.  Well, it was nice.  And it was sunny.  But.  It was not warm.  In fact, the breeze was quite cool, and I was beginning to wish with all my might for a jacket to keep the undesired coolness of the atmosphere at arm’s length.  I was walking down the sidewalk, when all of the sudden, I saw a brown rabbit in the grass.  Different from other rabbits I have seen before.  He did not hop away as I kept getting closer and closer…and CLOSER.  This was probably the closest I had ever been to a rabbit before, except for rabbits that I have seen inside a closed cage.  I was surprised he was still there.  He wasn’t in a hurry to leave after I came within earshot.  Just hanging out and sniffing the flowers, without a care in the world as I was getting ever closer to him and the lovely green grass he had scored.  What a nice brown fur coat he had.  Lucky!  The cool morning air probably did not bother him at all.

I think rabbits are so cute.  (The word “rabbits” is fun to say.  Say it over and over again, and you may also find it’s fun.)  Rabbits are so quiet.  You would never know they were there.  I’ve never heard a rabbit.  Have you ever heard a rabbit?  I would be shocked if I did hear a rabbit, although I know they actually are capable of making noise.  Which reminds me.  I have this one particular pair of shoes, and when I’m walking down the sidewalk, I can’t hear myself walking.  It’s kind of a strange sensation.  No one would ever know I was walking behind them.  If I closed my eyes, I might not even be 100% sure I was walking…unless, of course…someone in front of me stopped walking.

Oh…sorry for the rabbit trail…let’s get back to the rabbit.  He was so cute, with his long ears, and just hopping along from flower to flower.  I kept walking and he eventually hopped away to chase his next trail.  I wanted to wave and say, “Bye, Mr. Rabbit!  Have a nice life!”  (And then I remembered I was on campus of a distinguished institution of higher learning, and waving at rabbits might look rather…foolish.)  He just seemed so friendly, but he didn’t have to say a word or make a sound to prove it.  I could just tell.

Sometimes I feel like I’m a rabbit because I’m so quiet, and I just want to let it all out…like a parrot.  If people who don’t know me extremely well would read some of these posts I have written, they would probably say, “You wrote that?!?  But you’re so shy!  I don’t believe it.”  Even though rabbits are awesome, I don’t want to be a rabbit.  Because they are just too quiet.  But I don’t really want to be a parrot either because of their demeanor, which happens to be quite the opposite of rabbits.  Whatever animal is somewhere in between a rabbit and a parrot in their communication style, I want to be that.  If I had to choose an animal to become, that is.  I’m really quite content being a human.  A quiet human, with a loud mind, to be specific…

(To clarify: I was not wearing the aforementioned noiseless shoes the day I hoppened upon the friendly rabbit, so it’s not that he didn’t hear me walking.  Unless, of course, he was deaf.  And regarding that possibility, I have no possible way of knowing.)

May 1, 2008