Good Dog
Dear Cricket,
You’re just a rambunctious puppy but now you’re famous. Everybody’s asking “Where’s Cricket?”
I had to sit with this for a minute.
I heard a zen monk tell about a sorrow that arose during prolonged meditation. He realized he’d found compassion for insects. He remembered the suffering he had caused. He apologized to the insects. Each one. Each individual insect.
Part of the attainment he sought was to face his past honestly.
I think that’s how it went.
Yesterday I heard a mystic say everything in the universe has a soul.
Cricket, I used to be afraid of all bees. I felt they had to be destroyed if they buzzed into my environment. It hurts to get stung.
I considered insects to be “bad.”
Cause of death, rolled up newspaper. Spray can of poison . Whatever.
They suffered.
So one day I was practicing piano with the door to the garden path at my sister Kate’s and during some Beethoven bagatelle I glanced down at my knee and there I saw a big fat fuzzy bumble bee right there on my knee, fast asleep.
So that was my tiny awakening. I felt the sorrow like that monk expressed. Without the fear I could see the beauty of the little bug.
I’m not afraid of bees! I don’t have to be cruel! Freedom! And some teachings tell us that karma action is involved, to repair the harm, the inflicted pain.
Cricket, I am sorry for all the bugs I smooshed. The harm I’ve done. My Life Review is going to be a mess. All I ask is a little help, guidance, to alleviate a little suffering if I can.
You are innocent. Not me though!
I’m not even close to conscious knowledge of how my life is affecting other animals, and people too. That would be “perspective.” I’m not there yet.
Cricket, we owe you a debt of gratitude. Perhaps you remind Americans that the cruelty is not the point, after all.
You did not deserve to be an icon to get out the vote in November. But if so, you are helping to save democracy. Good dog!
Thank you. The wild beasts turned out to be the human beings- again.
Now, about those cicadas!
PS I thought this song was really about the bee. I was so young!
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