Intro: Pounding bass note and a stirring fanfare of horns. Welcome to another edition of Things to Think about. Here's Stacy. The horns continue with a keyboard note held.
Relaxing piano music is in the background.
Welcome to the Things to Think About podcast, where we use fables and fairy tales to uncover deeper truths about our subconscious world. Language has the power to change how we feel. Deadline vs Due Date is an example. One fills me with dread and the other slightly less dread. We will delve into the idea of getting unstuck in a tale I call, “Climbing Out of the Rabbit Hole”. And now, get comfortable and relax. Take a deep breath in. And exhale. A deep breath in and exhale. A deep breath in and exhale. And if you'd like, you can slowly close your eyes.
Once upon a time, there was an anti-social rabbit. The other rabbits found its habit of wearing discarded human waistcoats and making strange sounds off-putting. The other denizens of the rabbit den enjoyed a communal silence aside from occasional snores or grunts when food was scarce. This rabbit would squeak “I’m late, I’m late” to the confusion of the bunny community. In its efforts to find some peace and quiet to gather its thoughts, this rabbit often added new sections to the warren and lined them with grass and hay from the nearby farm. Then it would dream up incredible schemes to go where no rabbit had gone before. The other bunnies would discover its hiding spots and disturb its peace. Our rabbit continued to dig deeper down the rabbit hole.
During one of its excavations, the rabbit uncovered a lumpy canvas bag. Covering up the discovery site, the rabbit then created a space and decided to stay in solitude. For once, the rabbit did not feel rushed. The rabbit sat with its thoughts for a bit and decided to explore the bag. Gingerly it gnawed the bag open and found strange bundles of large flat leaves bound together by thin stretchy strings. The rabbit pondered what the humans did with these leaves. Perhaps they were refuse since the humans had buried them. The leaves had a very strong and acrid scent which caused the rabbit to tear up. The rabbit decided to investigate further and expanded the tunnel up to the surface near where it found the parcel.
When the rabbit tried to emerge, it bumped up against something and found it was surrounded by a root cage. “Ahhhh it thought, the humans buried this in the corn fields. The rabbit noticed a clear patch which is probably where they cleared the corn to bury the bag. It dug back down and over and emerged free from the corn roots. It hopped around and found rows and rows of corn. “Curiouser and curiouser,” it thought to itself and burrowed back down the rabbit hole. It removed one of the leaf bundles and pushed it up through the hole. Then it went back to the corn root cage and observed. Nothing happened for several hours, so the rabbit used a tunnel shortcut to the kale crops. After it ate its fill, it rushed back to the corn root cage and was shocked to find the bundle of leaves were gone.
The rabbit decided to get rid of the rest of the strange leaves. Perhaps it was a trap. It hoped it had not been poisoned and had a rare moment of concern for the rest of the colony. Arduously it worked to remove the bundles of strange leaves. Once they were clear it closed up the site and returned to the main tunnel network. Shaken by this possible brush with death, the rabbit decided that human endeavors were too dangerous to pursue here and could possibly harm the colony. “One last thing to do it thought,” made one more tunnel to the corn field where it discarded the waistcoat and ensured the entrance was hidden before hopping away. The rabbit decided to explore the human world to better understand the green leaves. Beyond the cornfield, something whispered.
When something doesn’t feel right we can try and make it work or we can leave. Do you want to go further down the rabbit hole or explore other fields?
And now, you can take a deep breath and exhale. Deep breath in and exhale. Deep breath in and exhale. If you are enjoying this podcast, please subscribe and tell a friend.
Closing: Closing jazzy keyboard and thrumming bass. I hope you enjoyed today's segment. Tell a friend. See you next time. Music fades. "
