Disciples, Apostles, and Saints!
About a month ago, a friend posted a picture he took outside his local supermarket. It was of a simple fall display and he captioned it with “It’s decorative gourd season again.” We, like many others, buy various gourds and pumpkins and, by mid-October, put them on the porch. And when we do, we say, “time to feed the squirrels.” The squirrels in our neighborhood eat well.
I’ve come to enjoy the spectacle, taking stock of the smaller gourds as they make a seemingly random migration across the porch, their entrails spread across the walk like a crime scene. It manages to be at once macabre and delightful.
I suspect some take a militant stance, patrolling their yards of such violations of decorum, believing these decorations were somehow not food—or that their use as decorations must be preserved from such desecration. This, to me, seems straight out of Looney Tunes, which is to say, not so much ridiculous as an eternal battle one is consistently bound to lose.
I used to think decorating with gourds was a waste anyway. And maybe I could use this as further proof that I was right all along.
Or perhaps we recognize that our own expectations were always faulty, our assumptions naive, and our assessments grounded, not in reality, but in a reality that lacked vital information. Like neighborhood squirrel density. But I enjoy watching them; and watching the cats watch them. And chances are good we will buy more next week.
With love,
Drew