Driving home from Eagle Rock last evening, I was thinking that whether we like anyone else or not, we have all been invited into the world. It’s fun to think we’re special, just like the other 80 billion people who have been born on Earth since 1 AD.
I was in the car alone, the crescent moon was revolving around the planet imagining itself as the only thing we would look at, and Van Morrison was singing “Days Like This.”
My self-appointed bright-light tailgater, who was really good at it, finally turned off to go down a road darker than a well, and then it was just the three of us – me, the moon and Morrison.
Until it was four of us.
She popped out of nowhere and ran in front of me. I swerved, braked, collided and cussed, then pulled over and got out to drag her off the highway.
Except she wasn’t there. I couldn’t find the poor dear. She left me with a sprig of red neck fur on the front fender and a broken headlight cover to remember her by.
It was sudden, awful, and a relief. Just like “Days Like This,” it was about wonderment despite all the puzzles, villains and worries we face every day.
I drove another seven miles home wondering what and why and how this had happened.
Maybe the dear deer was out admiring the moon. She maybe knew that highways are a part of life but still had enough wild in her that she resented scouting around for the best grass just so a noisy Van Morrison crowing about others’ behavior could be turned up noisier by a driver who wanted to shake the day off like pollen. Know what I mean?
Deer are quick, alert, flexible. They’re as innocent as rabbits. In a hosta patch.
Shamans will tell you that when your car hits a deer, the deer passes its energy into you. That’s confounding as we frequently look for more energy, but not by taking it from other living things.
Before all this happened, I was trying to figure out what’s conspiracy and what’s real, which is crazy but Van Morrison brought it on so I went with it.
There are those who don’t believe Neil Armstrong really walked on the moon because the American flag seems to flutter, but the moon is in a vacuum so that wouldn’t be possible. Others say Shakespeare wasn’t educated enough to be the greatest writer of all time. Global warming is a ploy to raise taxes. Area 51. Obama’s citizenship. 9/11. God.
Seems it’s just as naïve to believe in conspiracies as it is to believe everything others tell us. Maybe no one is trying to deceive, maybe people simply have independent outlooks, believe what they think they heard, and spread it. Maybe we create order out of chaos.
Maybe a doe threw herself at my grille to tell me to Go Slow, be patient, have a day that matters.
On the way to work this morning, coming down the hill from Angler’s to the Leatherwood Bridge, no other vehicles were in sight. A doe sauntering across Hwy. 62, paused, looked right at me, then trotted down toward Dog Hollow.
So tonight could be a marvelous night for a Moondance.
Beats Bad Moon Rising.