December

Issue 39

    Down in Cozy Hollow, past the Chattering Creek, beyond the Silvery Stump, near the Meandering Way, there perched a caterpillar on a mushroom.  No, it was not that caterpillar on that mushroom, but another caterpillar on a different mushroom.  This one was a woolly bear and he was very woolly.  

    His name was of no consequence because after he selected it, he promptly forgot it.  His sole purpose in life was to eat.  And eat he did--all through the day, from sunrise to sunset, rain or shine.  Later that evening when he would chew his way to the stubby end of the stem of this mushroom he would have eaten three whole mushrooms on that day alone.  Since he remembered nothing before the last mouthful of mushroom, how many he had eaten before this day did not matter.  Other thoughts flickered through his head as he chewed and chewed, but none were of his past meals.
 
   Sparrow was overhead and hungry.  She had been chased away from a delectable patch of seeds by Finch, and as such she was in a vulgar mood.  Darting this way and that, her dark eyes scanned the ground for any trace of movement. There!  On that mushroom!  A brown head was bobbing up and down as its owner chewed along the edge of the mushroom cap.  Sparrow growled in delight as she dove.

    Woolly Bear knew something was amiss.  His bristles began to poke out in awkward directions.  He glanced up just in time to see the brown and cream streak hurtling out of the sky straight towards him.  Coughing up a brown gob in fear, he quickly tumbled over the side of the mushroom and hid, shivering, beneath the shadow of its cap.

    Sparrow landed to one side and hopped closer.  She cocked her head to the side, trying to catch a glimpse of her prey beneath the cap.

    "O most horrible and deadly foe from the sky, please don’t eat me!" cried Woolly Bear in the language that all creatures used to talk amongst themselves.

    "Why, tasty morsel, should I do such a thing?" asked Sparrow in the same tongue, her beak clicking in anger, her black eyes flashing in hunger.

    "Have you not heard the speaking of the Anointed One, O mighty flier?" Woolly Bear squished his bulk closer to the stem of the mushroom.

    "What Anointed One?" asked Sparrow, hopping one step closer to her meal.  

    "The Anointed One.  I heard Him speak just . . . well, I do not remember when, but I heard Him speak.  He is very wise." Woolly Bear trembled.  More brown gooeyness dribbled down his chin as his meal began to come back up in his fear.  "He and His followers were down by the sea.  He spoke and spoke, then they ate fish and bread and went away."

    "A man?  Why should I care what a man says?" Sparrow leaned over to the side and snapped at Woolly Bear, just catching a tuft of his bristles in her beak.  "Come out so I may eat you.  Do not make me come beneath and catch you."

    "He is not just a man.  He is the Anointed One--Mashiach.  He is Holy.  He said we should love our neighbor as ourselves." Woolly Bear circled part way around the stem of the mushroom, trying to keep it between himself and Sparrow.

    "He is a man, and as such has nothing to say of any import to us.  I hunger.  You are edible.  That is all that matters." She hopped around the other way, trying to catch Woolly Bear off-guard as he scrunched around away from the direction she had been headed moments before.

    "But what of His words?  'Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself'?" He caught the difference in Sparrow’s motion and adjusted his scrunching accordingly.

    "What of them?  He is man--man kills animals.  As such, His words are of no consequence to this situation." She hopped once in the direction she had been headed, then thrice quickly in the reverse.  It did not work.  There was still stem between her and Woolly Bear.

    "He speaks the Word of the Creator."

    Sparrow stopped hopping.  "Eh?  What was that?"

    "I said He speaks the Word of the Creator.  You must listen."

    Sparrow sighed and ruffled her feathers in annoyance--not at Creator, but at Woolly Bear for being correct.  "Yes.  Creator speaks, we all listen.  This is the Law.  What says Creator through this Man?"

    "I told you already--love your neighbor as yourself." Woolly Bear took a nervous nibble of the stem.  He couldn’t help it.  He was, after all, built to eat.

    "You are not my neighbor.  You are my meal.  I fail to see the relevance of Creator’s Word in this situation."

    "'And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other,'" continued Woolly Bear in between mouthfuls.

    "We are not men.  We are animal.  Creator’s Word about man does not apply to us.  Stop talking nonsense and face the inevitable." She poked her head beneath the cap and lanced her beak at Woolly Bear.  She missed.

    "'Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.'" Woolly Bear continued to eat.  Soon the stem would be chewed through and the cap would topple.  But he did not notice this.  His eyes were focused on Sparrow’s every move and feint.

    "Stop talking non-sequiturs.  Yes, those sound like Creator’s Words, but they have no meaning here." Sparrow noticed the growing thinness of the stem and settled down to await the inevitable.

    "How can they not have meaning?  The Creator spoke them.  'Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.'" Woolly Bear continued chewing on the stem of the mushroom.

    "We covered that already.  You are not my neighbor, you are my meal."

    "'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.'"

    "We covered this, also.  We are not man, we are ani--wait, what did you just say?" Sparrow cocked her head at Woolly Bear.

    "I said, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.'" Woolly Bear took yet another nervous bite.  The mushroom began to teeter.

    "So I should fill myself with the Word of the Creator--is that what you are saying?" Sparrow moved her head closer to Woolly Bear.  His mouth full, he said nothing, merely nodding.  "I see," said Sparrow.  "You seem to be very full of Creator’s Word, are you not?"

    "Yes," said Woolly Bear.  "I listened to the Anointed One for hours.  I know many of His Words.  He said we should all love one another." He took another bite of the stem.  The mushroom began to topple.

    "Wrong answer," said Sparrow as she hopped over the fallen mushroom and gobbled Woolly Bear down.