Fine, I’m talking to the rabbits in my back yard again. The stresses of modern life, social dilemmas and impolite political discourse’ll do that to you. Rabbits are good listeners. They prefer pleasant conversation to confrontation and argument. And, yes, I know they are jackrabbits which are actually in the hare family and not truly rabbits.
Lately I’ve adopted the hot tub just off the pool bath as my contemplative sanctuary. Turn on the jets, lay back in the warm water, and the world seems a gentler place. For those who may not know, a pool bath is a bathroom with a door going outside to the pool.
The rabbits are abundant now. They like the new grass that pushes up in the spring time. And, they don’t mind my stories. So the other evening I told them about my friend Gina. Gina doesn’t live here anymore. She and her man-friend went on a cross country car trip and settled in North Carolina. That was a year and half ago, but she and I stay in touch.
Gina used to work as a server at a restaurant where I sometimes have lunch. My schedule often includes a late lunch and she would sit with me and talk. Over time we developed a comfortable friendship. A balloon for her birthday, homemade cookies for mine. Things like that. We once talked about music, and a few days later she gave me a CD she had put together with songs she thought I would like.
When you take the time to talk to people you find things out. Turns out Gina wasn’t really a restaurant server, at least not in her soul. She is an accomplished ballroom dancer. She’s appeared as a dancer in several Hollywood films and won a number of competitions. If you get to know her well enough, she’ll let you call her by her nickname, “Cha Cha”.
As I was sitting in the hot tub telling the rabbits about Cha Cha, it crossed my mind that she and I had never discussed politics. Whether she is Republican or Democrat, whether she cares at all about such things, remains a mystery. She approached life at a personal level, with kindness and a smile, treating each person as an individual. There is empathy in her and a desire to touch the lives of others.
The rabbits inspired me to think beyond this simple friendship, and it came to me that Cha Cha reflects a perspective too often lost in the morass of modern technology and political warfare. Life, to her, is a dance where people touch and move in unison. It’s not a gyrating mosh pit celebrating violence as an art form. Hers is a world of grace that meets others face to face, hand in hand. In a world where 27% of those in their late teens and early twenties are still virgins, and more than a quarter of couples “meet” online, and where politics are debated through impersonal media, Cha Cha reminds me of the value of interpersonal contact.
Rabbits understand that. Have you ever seen jackrabbits play? One stands still while another runs straight at the stationary rabbit. Just as the racing rabbit nears it, the one standing still leaps straight into the air and the running rabbit goes beneath it.
And it occurs to me that maybe we should spend less time arguing and more time getting to know each other. Maybe we should learn to play with each other. Maybe we should learn to ballroom dance again.
[Personal Note: My wife is in the hospital as I write this. She had emergency surgery Monday for a ruptured appendix and is treating for internal infection. We are hoping she will be discharged tomorrow, our 20th anniversary. Your thoughts and prayers would be appreciated. Thank you.]
Contributor, aka tidbits. Retired attorney in complex litigation, death penalty defense and constitutional law. Former Nat’l Board Chair: Alzheimer’s Association. Served on multiple political campaigns, including two for U.S. Senator Mark O. Hatfield (R-OR). Contributing author to three legal books and multiple legal publications.