I often think of rabbits, projecting onto them an intelligence they probably don’t possess. Nevertheless, I imagine that the cute, cuddly surface of rabbit belies a wisdom and cunning from which we might learn.
I suppose others have a different creature for which they are particularly fond - beyond the beloved cat or dog. But for me it’s the rabbit.
Then I arrived in Japan, and learned it’s the Year of the Rabbit,
and I see them everywhere.
Of course, the sight of them leads me to Alice,
and her native wisdom that has taught so many.
A few years ago, I revisited Mr. Carroll’s classic.
I wonder now if that reacquaintance planted the seed for my dream to travel around the world.
It was a silly dream some suggested. And from time to time in the months before leaving, I thought they might be right. It would certainly be easier to stay home rather than follow that rabbit down the hole.
When I get back, and have adjusted to Iowa time and home, I’ll likely reflect on my time away and write something of it. But for now, as I look out my window on the 9th floor of the Tokyo Airport Hilton,
I’m thinking of Alice and of her experiences.
Oh, how I wish I could shut up like a telescope! I think I could, if I only know how to begin.’ For, you see, so many out-of-the-way things had happened lately, that Alice had begun to think that very few things indeed were really impossible.
I’m thinking of friends and acquaintances in their 60’s and 70’s, who might follow their own rabbit down its own hole, if only they knew how to begin.
By the way, Pa’s decided not to fly back with me, he says his one trip here was enough. That baseball and the good company of family and friends are all he needs.
“Besides,” he told me, “when the time is right, there will likely be other worlds I’d like to visit.”
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