The Doorstop

Dear Lane,

I have always loved children's stories so much.  They usually come from a simpler time, and tell simple lessons, and I still hope that some things in life can be that simple.  I love the one about the frog and the scorpion, although it haunts me, too.  My favorite book is Green Eggs and Ham.  Such a simple tale of prejudice and blindness, but set in a world where there's no evil, no hate.  There's just misunderstandings, and they get resolved in fifty words or less.  Friendship, love, and reason all triumph.  At the same time, there is the resounding question of why the tall one dislikes "Sam I Am" so much.  I think it is because Sam confronts him with his own fears.  People who truly love us will confront us with what matters most.  Friends who don't really care just ask if you want to get high, or what you think about the Lions' chances next season.  When guys like Cal actually began to confront me with myself, it scared me.  Like Sam's nameless protagonist, it took me a long time to figure out that love had to be about a lot more than happy topics and a constant barrage of flippant remarks.

My favorite story of all time, and one of my ultimate puzzles, is Little Red Riding Hood.  Why is that?  That I really don't know.  Maybe it's the innocence of Red.  Perhaps it is the brutality of the tale.  Two people swallowed alive, a predator beheaded and disembowelled.  We love that type of barbarism.  It makes us believe, and hope, that there's still justice and the possibility of being saved from evil, even when you're already down the gullet.  I guess we want to believe that it's never too late to be saved.

Well, here's my problem, and it's one that I still can never figure out.  After everything that I've been through, why do I always end up feeling sorry for the wolf?  Nature decreed that he was just being what he had to be:  A scorpion.

Life is nothing more than a battle to the death between love and hatred, and, wouldn't you know it, hate is the only one that's allowed to fight dirty.  Unfair, huh?

It's never like in the the movies where, at the end, the entire multitude sees the light and they all stand up, strong and united for the just cause.  In the world that I have experienced, there are few things weaker than a multitude.  Only the bravest would dare to stand up in the midst of one.

You know, I still wonder about the frog and the scorpion.  Mostly, I find myself wondering which one was the real victim, and which one was me.  Maybe I was both, even.  Which one are you?