93. Raccoons

            There’s a nocturnal animal here in America that always fascinates me. It’s the raccoon. Their tails have rings around them and their faces have a little mask around their eyes as if they are little bandits coming to steal things. In fact, they are. If you have property anywhere near them and like to grow a garden be aware that they will come in the night and raid it.

            Raccoons have captured the imagination of many an American boy. When you live in rural areas hunting is a big thing and the hides of raccoons have some value. I can’t tell you how many of my students who aren’t normally readers have fallen in love with the books Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls and Rascal by Sterling North. And, of course, those were also both favorites of me as a young boy.

            My actual encounters with raccoons are infrequent, but I typically see them once or twice a year. The always seem to live near rivers as do I, so it’s not unusual for me to encounter them at night crawling into a culvert to hide from me. I’ve seen them while running in the cool of a summer evening or driving home from somewhere just after dusk. They are very elusive and encounters with them are not nearly as frequent as the two books I mentioned earlier would leave you to believe. I’m sure that’s why they have always captured my imagination. As a boy I used to think I might just befriend one and have it hang out with me like Rascal in North’s novel. But of course that never happened.

            Just like so many things in our lives, our imaginations are captivated by them. Raccoons happen to be very real but a part of their mystique isn’t real at all. They are something that always of a warm evening lurks just on the edge of my yard, my imagination, waiting to steal my corn or, just maybe, come over for a pet before sidling out of my dreams. Raccoons are a distinct part of Americana and I’m thankful for that.

92. Opossum

            While I’m going on about American animals that I am glad to have around—animals that I am glad to have around, animals that add to our American identity—I can’t forget the opossum, the only marsupial of North America. These little creatures are native to the south so I haven’t been around them a lot, but they have made it to the milder parts of the Northwest and can frequently be found as road kill in the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area. This is where I am familiar with these odd little creatures. More often than not they are illustrated as cute furry little animals with long tails that they hang by from tree branches. In reality they aren’t all that cute but more rat like. (As you may have gathered, I’m not a fan of rats.) However, they dwarf rats. So, perhaps I am more fond of the imaginative ‘possum than the real one, but there could never be an imagined ‘possum without a real one. So they have earned my respect as distinctly American creatures. They have added joy to our vernacular English as well because what American doesn’t know what it is to play ‘possum? There it is and then there it is not! Elusive and amazing little creatures that add so much to our identity in all its complexity as Americans. Ugly or not, who can’t be proud of these little southerners serving as Northwest road kill?

Running in just spring

            In just spring I want to get into better running shape but the world is so often puddle wonderful and I don’t want to go out because I get wet and I wear glasses and I’m rendered blind with them or without them. But then if I don’t run I just become a little lame balloon man that is overweight and out of shape and I can’t even walk and when eddieandbill come running from marbles they pass me by and whistle far and whee…

            e e cummings is a favorite poet of mine and I felt compelled to honor his poem “In Just” while I write about running. I’m not sure my running issues fall too in line with that poem but in some ways they do. Certainly I am tempted to just run away from running—to not do it (and in my interpretation the little lame balloon man is a sort of devil tempting the children into some sort of perdition). When I am out of shape running becomes hard. Spring rains are more-often-than-not cold and that can just add to the misery of out of shape running. And I do wear glasses so I can’t really see much when I’m running in the rain. Of course I can wear a hat with a bill to keep the water off my glasses and, of course, I do. But then I am forced to duck my head so that I still see nothing very clearly. To not run is a huge temptation.

            So in just spring I find running to be very labor intensive and I am not the dedicated young man I once was who seldom missed my run. But I still love the affect it has on my body, making me thinner, keeping my blood pressure low, and keeping those second guesses about hard work at bay. So while aging has made so many things in life much easier (teaching, speaking, reading, socializing, etc.) running is definitely not one of them. But the benefits are still outweighing the downside so I will continue to make myself lace up those trainers, throw on a water resistant jacket and a billed cap and go out and run in just spring when the world is mudlucious.

91. Armadillo

I go on about American animals that I like but so far they’ve all been from my part of the country. That’s because I’m quite partial to the Northwest. but there are other uniquely American animals (and when I say that I really mean North American) that also captivate my imagination. One of those is the armadillo. I can’t say I know a whole lot about them and I live where there aren’t any so they have no sense of being a nuisance to me. They just have that curious appearance of some kind of armored rodent. I’m thinking more in line with a gopher. I think an armored rat would be terrifying and armadillos aren’t quite so ugly. But, like I said, I live where there aren’t any armadillos and they don’t present any sort of nuisance to me. So for me, the idea of little armored gophers roaming the expanses of Texas seems kind of romantic. I know that’s not how it is, but that is the truth of imagination. And that’s just one thing an armadillo offers us Americans and that’s something worth having around.

90. Grizzly Bear

            

            An animal that captivates me in this country of ours is the grizzly bear. They aren’t so easy to find anymore, at least not here in the contiguous 48 states. In fact, I have never seen one in the wild anywhere but in Alaska. We were on a tour bus in Denali National Park and when we got to a spot where there were some grizzlies roaming near the road, the driver pulled over to let us observe the bears. The bears were every bit as curious as we, the tourists on the bus were, because two of them came over, stood on their hind paws, put the front on the bus and peered into the windows. They even playfully shook the bus. (Hungrily shook the bus?) None of us were overly alarmed as the driver had already told us that it was a distinct possibility that they would do just that. So we tourists took our time gazing at the bears that also took their time gazing at us, then they got tired or bored of us and wandered away. The bus driver then drove us on toward Denali peak.

            I have never seen grizzly bears anywhere in this part of the country, though I know they are still around in Washington, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. I’ve heard stories of grizzly encounters at Priest Lake, Glacier National Park and Yellowstone National Park, but it was never my experience. I’m glad they’re still around and that human encroachment upon their territory has not yet fully overcome them. In fact, I hope it never does. I like having places of intense beauty around with intense animals that can easily destroy me with a single wave of their paw. I also like the idea of never meeting one on a hike because I’m more enamored of the idea than the reality. My tourist bus encounter in Alaska was enough to convince me of the power of a grizzly bear and that’s fine by me. But I’m still quite happy knowing that I live in a country, and better yet, a part of that country, that is still wild enough to have grizzly bears roaming free. That’s part of being American that brings me a sense of pride and helps me keep negative thoughts at bay.