This squirrelly episode that just went down in my back yard brings up alot for me. There’s alot to unpack and could use your help here.
Here’s the deal…
Like a white-tailed antelope squirrel - BTW, one of the smallest of all ground squirrels - I work my own tail off to put food on the table.
Those of you who know me know me know that I’ll give the shirt off my significantly hairy back to most anyone…and that through CropMobster and other efforts over the years, we helped share literally tons of surplus fruits and other vegetables (sure miss that project. Wish it still existed).
All this to say I’m all about sharing the abundance and surplus. But there’s gotta be some base level of respect and courtesy on all sides.
But back to the video. Interested in your thoughts on this.
I’m thinking the one squirrel could have been a little less of a showboat with that gigantic cirhuela plum in its possession.
I mean, buddy. We can all see you have a giant, beautacious plum. You don’t need to parade it around like you just won the ground squirrel lottery.
But then there’s the other rapidly approaching squirrel. The stealthful gall.
Rather than simply mozying over and saying, “Hey friend, that’s a pretty impressive and gigantic plum you’ve got there. If by chance you’ve bit off more than you can chew, any chance you’d be willing to share?” it just flies in and takes a swipe.
No please. No thank you. No discussion of equitable plum distribution. Nothing. And thus the other squirrel hits the road, gives him the squirrel butt version of a middle finger.
Honestly, I think this whole thing could have gone down very differently.
The first squirrel could have shared. And the second squirrel could have asked a bit more nicely. Maybe they could have worked out out some kind of mutually beneficial plum-sharing arrangement. One eats the juicy part. The other gets a little of the skin. Perhaps they save the pit for later.
I don’t know. I’m not an expert ground squirrel negotiator. But it got me thinking about how often we humans do the exact same thing. We cling tightly to what we have, even when we have more than enough, while someone else sees what we have and thinks the only way to get a piece is to take it.
Sometimes all it takes is a little less showboating, a little more asking, and a willingness to share the damn plum my peoples.
Thinking there’s a life lesson here. Or maybe I’m just really into observing white-tailed antelope squirrels.