Heidi Perryman
The red sky at morning is from the day of the storm…like the old rhyme “red sky at warning, sailors take warning” only in this case more like…beavers take warning. Apparently they got the message because this morning there were major repairs to the primary dam and only a little corner left unpatched. The secondary dam was clearly not a priority. There was lots of beaver activity, cheerful and reminiscent of summer days where you could stand alone on the bridge and watch the kits in all their furry glory.
I’ve been thinking about those early days when they were just “beavers” (and not a campaign to save beavers) When they magically felt like they belonged to the viewer alone at that moment. The sense of ownership by each individual who encountered them in their daily lives was remarkable and actually instrumental in their rescue. People felt like “they” understood “their” beavers and told the story to enough people enough times that it got listened to. This feeling so powerfully reflects the wish that we all have to discover and touch wonder, to have some control over this wild world where we find ourselves struggling. Still, the ownership myth is just a myth, and I’m talking to myself here most of all.
Our beavers are “their own” beavers. They make choices independent of us and don’t take our needs into account. They are kind of like teenagers who are always our responsibility but never really under our control. If all goes the way we hope they will become “just beavers again”, and viewers can go back to that private wonder where we watch the world make a little more sense. This morning I watched several beavers paddle around the water, snuffling treats and checking the dam. It made sense to me.
