Squirrel

The squirrel is inadequately afraid of humans! Squirrel, I am a threat to you! We are enemies! Please get off my bench! Oh god! Oh god! Don't touch me - oh god!

~ John Green

- - - - -

I have been trying to slow down. I think most of us rush through and around things too often. We miss good stuff. We miss important moments. Leslie gave me the imagery of "squirrel brain" which is when I let my thoughts snowball instead of staying in the present moment and enjoying the world around me.

I picture a squirrel running on one of those rodent wheels. Running and running. Or scurrying around the cage grabbing and burying things in a frenetic way. 

And then I wonder where they got a rodent wheel big enough for a squirrel because you mostly see those wheels for mice or smaller animals. And also how big would a squirrel cage need to be? And how unhappy would the squirrel be to be in a cage? And would it have dirt so the squirrel could bury its acorns and stuff because I know they like to do that. And what about climbing? Do they get sad when they don't have anything to climb? And if you included things for them to climb then, well, you'd need an even bigger cage than you had before. And how did you decide to cage the squirrel, anyway? Did you take it in as an orphan squirrel? Did it have some sort of leg injury and you nursed it back to health?

I'm not saying squirrel brain is a good analogy to how my brain works sometimes, I'm just saying it's a thing Leslie suggested.