It was a bad Saturday night. My candidate was soundly defeated in the Nevada Caucuses, and I was smarting badly from loss.
Even as the night was drawing in, I knew the only way I was ever going to start feeling better was to go out into the woods for a twilight perambulation.
The Saturday before was a subzero night. Snow was on the ground and each step was hard and sharp and crunchy. This night was much warmer. It was well above freezing, and the sky was without any clouds. The stars were shining. The moon was almost full.
The squabbles out in Nevada now seemed pointless by comparison, and as I walked into the darkness of a stark February wood, I began to revel in the majesty and forget machinations of humanity. This is what I wanted anyway. Peace and quiet and a realization that this is all insignificant by comparison.
My reverie was then interrupted. In the hollow below the the logging road where I was walking came the churs and snorts of warring demons. There were screeches and squalls mixed into all the din. There was a great battle gong on below me, and I knew instantly what was happening.
February brings the raccoon mating season, and two of the local boars were sorting it out over a female in estrus. I guessed the one of them was the resident ridge-running raccoon who found him a sow to follow on this moonlit night, but the warmer weather and the intoxicating odors had brought up a challenger from the creek bed.
For five minutes, I listened to the boars fight. I debated as to whether I should wander down and see if I could get a better look. But I was certain they would run if they heard my approach down into the hollow.
So I stayed put and listened to the war.
And as soon as the cacophony rose, the air fell silent again. The boars were not fighting now. Perhaps one had beaten the other, and now he had the sow to himself. Or maybe they were off licking wounds and getting ready for another donnybrook.
I didn’t stay long to find out. My mind was tuned to something else besides politics, of the narcissism that is inherent in being human..
Raccoons have fought these wars long before there was a United States, long before there were Democratic Caucuses and primaries. Their wars were about passing on genes. Nothing more. Nothing less.
As I watch now, in this general election from Hell, I think back to that night in February. I think of the moonlight and the stars and the primitive war of ‘coons in a deep hollow.
The sun will rise tomorrow. The seasons will change. My life will one day end.
All around us are these parallel dramas, ones we don’t often take a time to consider.
We all live in alienation from this world to some degree.
But it’s important to break away from our world and see it in proper perspective.
In proper perspective, we can be fully humbled before the mystery.
Natural History
