Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Mole Moves

Miryam the Mole has met her Maker. The way of all flesh is to run to and fro, back and forth...be anxious for our food, fretful to preserve our life, and determined to seek out whatever our "nose" fancies... and in all those tunnels in which we run about, there is a trap. That trap would have no power over us, except it is baited by the thing we want most! So we are drawn to our doom by desire (maybe even inordinate desire, which is lust).
I think Miryam the Mole couldn't give up her garlic patch. Even when the "stinky" got pretty awe-ful on one end, she would race through tunnels to another part of the garden. So for Miryam, there really wasn't any escape from the stinky but one: Leave. That, or perish. However, she couldn't abide what was to have been her Passover. Instead, she was trapped at the end of a new tunnel that was seeking to break into four new rows of garlic.
I could see the end coming for her. Up to the high end of the garden she would race for a garlic, then all the way down to the lower end for another. Rushing to and fro in a matter of minutes. In one intersection she even threw up a mound of dirt---in my face so to speak---to try and seal off the stink in the main tunnels. And not paying attention to where she was headed. Two cats were already sitting and listening to her "moves" to and fro. Ready to pounce. Only difference from lions, cats don't roar. But, they hunt just as skillfully, and these aren't de-clawed house kitties.
So ends the story of Miryam. Her Hebrew name comes from "marah" (bitter) and "yam" (sea or ocean). Miryam's way is the way of all flesh. Look around you, seen everywhere: a few moments in the pleasures of the garden... then!!
Thirty-seven garlic plants later, I am a bit sad. Maybe moles can't learn some new "moves." She was certainly quite proficient at digging tunnels and eating, but those "moves" did her in. So now the cats are smiling, the garlic grows tall in the new rains, and "Shaket" and "Shalom"---quiet and peace---reign in the garden once again.
Indeed, Miryam did have something of God to reveal to me.
But first, I'm going to have a big dish of my favorite ice cream topped with ripe banana...

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