Honey and Owl: Justice

One morning, Honey woke up very early, tipped-toed past her mother, father and three brothers, and out the front door into the clover patch, where she munched, munched, munched until she finally looked up and said: “I wonder what is going on in the forest; I think I’ll go find out.” So off she went.

Not far away, Owl woke up, stretched his wings, and said: “I’m hungry.” Before long he spotted a nice, plump field mouse, and whoosh, down he went and ate him all up! Then he said: “I wonder where Honey is. I think I had better go find out. She might be in trouble.” So off he flew.

Honey lived in Mussel Creek and today she decided to visit friends on the Rogue River, friends she hadn’t seen in a long, long time. She looked for Kujo and Sally and thought maybe they would go with her, but they were not in the hollow Douglass Fir log they generally called home, so she decided to go by herself. The Umpqua River was a long, long way away for a little bunny, so she hopped and hopped and hopped for most of the day. She passed Doris deer, who was munching near some wild blueberries, and Bucky Beaver, who was looking for his children, but she didn’t stop say “Hello”.

It was a lovely day, and although it took Honey to the time when the sun was directly overhead, she made it! Finally, Honey stopped, sat down and looked around. She saw, felt, and savored total contenment, total peace, total beauty. The Umpqua took her breath away. The sapphire river, which flowed so powerfully yet so gently, was alive. The cedars lined on the shore, and besides the trees were granite rocks that seemed to say: I will protect you. Everything here spoke to each other, the birds, the grasses, the butterflies, and bees all were humming. Honey breathed deeply and savored the moment, the sweet sugar smell and crisp calm air. How wonderful she felt, how much at peace.

Where, Honey wondered, would she find her friends? Would they be munching clover, and if so, where? Or would they be nestled under the Cedar trees taking a nap? Honey looked around and around, but they were nowhere. Nowhere! Finally she became worried and thought: Maybe Foxie is nearby. But no Foxie.

Finally, Honey spied a group of bunnies, bunnies she had never seen before, and they looked different. Their fir was all white except for a black tail, they had short ears and big feet, and they were tall and heavy looking, as if they couldn’t hop very far without stopping for a rest. “I wonder who they are?” Honey said, so she decided to find out. She hopped on a large log, floated across the Umpqua, and went cautiously to see what she could see, and if they had might help find Kujo and Sally.

They stared, and stared, and stared at her, and Honey felt small, very small. Finally, the biggest of the big rabbits said in a deep rabbit voice: “Who are you, what are you, and what do you want!” It wasn’t a question, but a statement.

Honey was afraid; she didn’t know why, but she said as cheerfully as she could: “Hi! My name is Honey! I live at Mussel creek and have come here to look for my friends, Sally and Kujo. Have you seen them by any chance? I can’t find them and I’m worried.”

The Big rabbit, the one in charge, looked at his friends first, and grinned slightly, then turned to Honey and said: “You are a very funny looking rabbit. You are all brown, and you have big ears. Are you really a rabbit? And where is Mussel creek? You said that is where you come from, but what a strange name. I’ve never heard of any rabbit, if that is what you are, coming here from there. And why would you be looking for these friends, as you call them? Do they look like you? And where do they live?”

Honey didn’t know what to say, and became more and more scared, so she turned around and hopped away as quickly as she could. But just before she was about to hop onto the log to take her back across the Umpqua, however, she heard a loud: “Psst…psst…psst.” And she turned around, and there under a fern bush she saw Sally and Kujo, hiding!!!

Something was wrong, terribly wrong, and Honey knew it. Her friends were shaking  and they both looked scared, really scared.

“What happened” said Honey! “When I couldn’t find you are Mussel Creek, I went looking for you, all over the place! And then I began to get worried and came here and asked those other bunnies if they had seen you. They didn’t answer, and for some reason, they scared me! And now I see you hiding under this maiden fern! How long have you been here and why are you both so scared?

It was Kujo who spoke, naturally, and here is what he said.

“Honey, we left Mussel Creek to go on an adventure, and we though the Umpqua would be a good place to explore. It took us a long time to get here, but when we did we were hungry and started munching on the clover. All was good until those other bunnies came over, the ones with the white fur and black tails and they spoke to us in a way I have never heard! They wanted to know what we were doing there and told us we had no right to be on their property. They told us we could not eat their clover, and they wanted to know if we were real bunnies or not. They made fun of our brown fur! They called us “foreigners”, whatever that means. And they told us to go away and never come back and that if we did, they would put us in a deep hole until we starved! So we left, ran away, really, and were going to hid here until dark, when we would hop away very, very quietly. Honey, we are scared!”

Honey gulped! She could tell from the tears in their eyes that they really, really didn’t know what to do, and Honey thought: “I wish Owl were here. He would tell us what to do.” But he wasn’t there, so she snuggled up to them and said: “Don’t worry my dear friends, everything will be alright.” And the three fell asleep in each other’s paws.

It was a crisp sunny morning. The grass was an emerald green, the sky an azure blue, the clouds a deep white. The trees beckoned, and they crept out of their hollow to munch, munch, munch some pansies and clover. Oh, how good it tasted.

During the night, Honey had come to a decision. She was going to go back and talk to the Big rabbit, not only to tell him that she had found Sally and Kujo, but to find out what kind of rabbits they were and where they came from. So she turned around and lickety-split hopped back, for they, too, were munching under a big Douglas fir.

Quietly, so quietly, she approached them and when the Big rabbit looked up, Honey said: “Hi my friend. Could we talk? I don’t understand some of the things you said, like: Are you really a rabbit? Yes, I am a rabbit, and you look like a rabbit too, although you have different spots and ears and look bigger than I. And yes, we come from a different place, someplace you have never heard of, but all places are everyone’s places, really. No one owns anyplace, they just live there. So yes, we look different, and we come from another river, but we are still all the same!”

Big rabbit was about to argue and say there were not all bunnies, that Honey and Kujo and Sally were trespassing, when all of a sudden, he saw two dark eyes looking at him, and two reddish ears twitching, and a long black nose, and Big rabbit screamed: “Run! Run for your life!” Suddenly, everyone saw Foxie behind the big blackberry bush as he leaped out chasing everyone as fast as he could. Although the rabbits scattered, one small bunny could not run very fast; his name was Pinky. And Pinky had a broken foreleg, so didn’t go skippity, skip, skip like everyone else, but hop, hop, hop. It wasn’t long before Foxie chased him down! Pinky fell on his back and looked Foxie right in the eye, and Foxie smiled right back: “I’ve got you little one, and I’m going to eat you right up! Ha-ha!”

But before he could, there appeared another rabbit named Eurydice and she, too, looked Foxie right in the eye and said: “No, Foxie, you are not going to eat Pinky right up, you are going to help her get up.” 

Foxie looked up and saw Eurydice staring at him, and he didn’t know what to do! He didn’t laugh, or smile, but just stood there and silently said nothing.

Eurydice was calm, and spoke the following:

Big rabbit and Kujo and Foxie, we are all animals, no matter where we come from or what we look like or how we hop or how we run, or what we eat. Some of us have pointy red ears, some have soft white ears, some have spots, some have no spots. Some are red, like Foxie and some are white, like Big rabbit, and some are black and white, like Kujo and Sally. Some live at Mussel creek, some on the Umpqua river. But we all have a Foxie in our life. Some Foxies walk on two legs and shoot with a gun, some harm the air we breathe or the destroy the weather we feel. The point is, we are all animals, and we all want the right to live as best we can. 

And when it comes to property, no one owns anything because owning something just means you have more power than someone else. Foxie can say he will eat Pinky because he has the power to eat her, not because he has the right to eat her. Again, we are all animals, and all animals have the right to be treated fairly, equally, and justly. As some say: Might does not make Right.

So, Foxie, you are not going to eat Pinkie because you now know that Pinky is an animal, that all animals are equal, that we respect all life, whether it is a fellow rabbit or a fellow fox. I hope that is clear.

And just as quickly as Eurydice appeared, she disappeared. From where she came, or where she went, we don’t know, nor ever will know. But we are very glad she did because she taught us how to live together as one.

Why is it better to be just?

Why are some rabbits unjust?

How does Honey live in a “unjust” world? Perhaps by correcting wrong.

Why does Honey want to be “just” I the first place? Because if she isn’t, she won’t be able to live with herself. 

Unjust world; unjust system; unjust opportunity; unjust judgement (based upon race, gender, etc.)

Protesting for rights/against wrong, evil.

Honey: more food than another rabbit; better environment than another; equal voice, equal color of rabbit fir;

Owl’s Corner

Just means treating everyone with respect and fairness; it means judging each person, each living thing, equally based on their actions, behavior, and language. It means that in your heart you make no prior judgements, certainly no prior judgements based on ethnicity, race, language, culture, gender, religion.

 “…everyone deserves equal economic, political, and social opportunities irrespective of race, gender, or religion.”

Injustice is based upon judgements that do not correlate with the facts, hence not true. Who determines what is true? Someone with no vested interest in the outcome.

Many rabbits live in a poor area where they cannot get food, a burrow, and need to migrate to another place. (the laws are not just themselves). Justice is not following the law, it is following your heart.

Bottom Line: 

Fairness? Impartial. According to the law?

Paying debts. Giving to each what is owed.

Not just good versus evil

Complicated: Different types.

That is essential: That you treat every living thing with respect. It does not mean harming enemies.

All Life is to be Treasured.