"The squirrel that you kill in jest, dies in earnest." (Friday's Fact — Actually Everyday's Fact)

MY GARDEN IS THE SETTING FOR BOOK SERIES

MY GARDEN IS THE SETTING FOR BOOK SERIES

MY GARDEN IS THE SETTING FOR BOOK SERIES

MY GARDEN IS THE SETTING FOR BOOK SERIES

Nearly a couple of weeks ago on the day of July 12th 2020, it slipped my mind to write a post in honor of Henry David Thoreau who as born on that day in 1817.

As followers of this blog undoubtedly know, I have written about him a number of times here on Blogger, and if you'd like to refer to those posts, please click here.

In the past (on a number of occasions including on an anniversary of his birthday that took place in 2017), I have confessed that "I think of the wisdom shown in Thoreau's writings on many times, but even more so when I encounter a house sparrow, which happens on countless occasions, given the number of this bird type that are living in NYC."

However, for the past few weeks, it is the presence of a squirrel in my rooftop garden which is the setting for my three volume book series, Words In Our Beak.

MY BOOK SERIES

In any event, this squirrel (who is not included in my books as he/she came here long after their publication) has been causing me to ponder the writings of Thoreau; and from the pensive look on the face of the creature seen in the photos atop this entry, it seems I'm not the only one pondering.

Based on the aforementioned images as well as ones directly below, this lone, pensive-looking creature may also be pondering.

MY GARDEN IS THE SETTING FOR BOOK SERIES

MY GARDEN IS THE SETTING FOR BOOK SERIES

MY GARDEN IS THE SETTING FOR BOOK SERIES

MY GARDEN IS THE SETTING FOR BOOK SERIES

But if he/she is pondering, what might be on his/her mind? Could it possibly be the truism in a squirrel-related quotation by the beloved Henry David Thoreau? The quote I have in mind is, "The squirrel that you kill in jest, dies in earnest."

Rather this squirrel was mulling over the Thoreau quote re his animal type or not, is only known to him/her but my curiosity about what people think of this quotation led me to an investigation and  I came upon some thoughts on a Yahoo Answers web-page re how an array of persons interpret Thoreau's wisdom. The following remarks are a fraction of what I found:

"A lot of things that you do in 'fun', other people take quite seriously."

"It's like this.  You kill a squirrel in jest.  That squirrel's life  didn't mean anything to you so you killed it as a joke, yet the squirrel died in earnest.  That life was sure important to the squirrel."

"Mr. Thoreau was quite the thought provocateur... IMHO, it means, something so small and insignificant as a squirrel, we kill for fun, yet the squirrel spends every waking moment trying to avoid being killed for food... so his death was a constant struggle to survive, yet we as humans are so casual about it that we would kill it for sport or fun."

"What that means is that even if you are just kidding and do something hurtful it still hurts the other. So if you kill a squirrel as a joke, it really dies seriously.  Like my son has a tendency to say hateful things and then say I was just joking. I keep telling him that it is not a joke if it hurts someones feelings."

As I said, these remarks are only a fraction of what I saw on Yahoo's Page, and I must say, it was nice to see so much passion and thought come forth in regard to Thoreau's quotation.

The latter of these comments really hit home with me as I have often (a lifetime) been the target of hurtful remarks that people say to me "in jest" when reacting to the fact that one of my eyes turns inward as a result of my having been born with Keratoconus as well as Monocular vision.

Additionally, I've been the target of remarks in so-called jest, but that border on bullying, when people react to my lumpy/bumpy physicality, which I have as a result of having been born with NF, the abbreviation for the neurological condition known as Neurofibromatosis.

The encounters I have had led me to writing a book length piece titled, Imperfect Strangers, which discusses growing up with the condition of NF and I've posted a video re my endeavor which can be viewed within my Vimeo channel as well as my You Tube channel.

VIEW ON VIMEO
VIEW ON YOU TUBE

I truly hope that I will see publication of Imperfect Strangers, and that the book will lead to raising awareness of NF as well as the consequences of spoken words. People need to know, "The squirrel that you kill in jest, dies in earnest."  

My little visitor (seen below) seems to concur.

MY GARDEN IS THE SETTING FOR BOOK SERIES

MY GARDEN IS THE SETTING FOR BOOK SERIES