oh deer, me
The weather seems to turned its back on the bad, late winter habits of morning chills and have since found a pleasant mildness to settle on. My run tonight was in a blanket of soft wind that no more cooled me off than the other side of the pillow. Fantasic weather and a fantastic sunset.
I got back to the residence and walked over to the fence that overlooks some field or large area of grass. After a while of staring into the plush greens, I noticed a quartet of deer wandering along the opposite, parallel fence line. They never noticed me, so I thought it would be prime time to not make a fuss. I became stone, of a sweaty, t-shirt-wearing kind.
The deer came to the far fence and, one-by-one, jumped over it. But their manner was intriguing; there were no running lunges or steps backward to get full vertical motion. They, utterly simply, stood in front of the fence and jumped. And that’s all. I was amazed, but still remained unmoving.
The group started across the field in my direction, veering east for a while and then west but maintaining a steady northern path that would point them straight to me. Their composition became clearer during their approach, one male and three females, no little ones for this Sunday evening walk. I expected them to begin fleeing me soon enough; I mean, a white t-shirt sort of sticks out with a background of dark green foliage. It didn’t seem to bother them, though.
They got closer and closer and came to the fence I was standing up against. Then they began walking straight to me, but slowly, knowing something about this object’s presence wasn’t usual, wasn’t typical. They would stop and stare for a few minutes, my foot slowly going numb since all of my weight was on the one foot. They would stare and then continue walking to me. Finally, the male broke from the tight group and started straight towards me and then stopped, oh, about 25 feet away. He began to pound his left front foot against the ground. Somehow, I didn’t feel this was an initiation gesture and suddenly came to the realization that I may be challenged by a young buck.
In a very slow manner, I turned my head away from them and looked upward at a plane that was arcing far away with a dull, well-beaten sound. After another couple of minutes, I returned my gaze back to the group of deer who never drifted their looks at me. Again, one-by-one they turned their backs and began trotting down the line of the fence away from me. They reached the edge of the woods and looked back at me in unison. I turned my full body, shuffled the tall grass around me, and returned their farewell. While they crept into the woods, I casually reentered this polluted, manacled shell of a world.
Humans have a knack for destroying everything pure in this world. Then it’s a miracle, and something worth two dollars or more, when we bottle “natural spring water” and send it out for consumption. The gullible fall into that trap; because, see, natural spring water has been around for millions and millions of years. Arg. I just hate screwing with nature.
On a totally unrelated note, I am loving the new iPod ad.
Something tells me, after rereading my entry, I need to work on my transitions.
May 9th, 2005 at 11:00 pm
I love deer. I always thought if I died and I was given the choice of what to reincarnate as, I would choose a deer. Nothing compares to their grace, their shining.
May 9th, 2005 at 11:20 pm
When they are in a dominantly natural habitat, deer are a creature unlike any other I am aware of. Just stunning.