BACK WORDS // HAPPY EASTER
It is easy to forget that a wilderness existed among us. Animals and Plants that lived here long before a city took root, and will last long after people are gone. They lay in wait for the day they can come out of hiding, when we stop building up and tearing down in endless cycles of growth and decay. These creatures will survive us despite our incessantdesire to hunt, cut, cull, castrate, excavate, extract, exterminate, harvest, slaughter, slash & burn, poison, drain and otherwise destroy the place that belonged to them in the beginning.
Sometimes I imagine what this land would have looked like two million years ago. I think of a pristine mess, sublimely unspoiled and unidealized. It is not a pastoral prairie scene. The grass is high and full of unknown dangers. The river is fast and clotted with rocks and branches. The banks are caked with mud.
Some people look at this picture and see a garden pest. Others think of Easter or the trickster. For me, this rabbit, rangy and restless, is a humbling reminder of the history of this place, and the resilience of nature.
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