The Ostrich & The Child

Back before Charles Manson killed two women because of misinterpreted Beatles’s lyrics; back before Latiesha Green, Gwen Araujo & others were killed because of human-made divides between man & woman; back before crusaders destroyed parts of the Middle East because of misinterpreted bible passages; back before thousands annually die because of human-made divides between U.S. & Mexico�" when conscious life was very young & didn’t know of abuse�" there was an Ostrich who was bitter with jealously because she could not fly. She decided that flying was dangerous & that the world was meant to be feared. She couldn’t take a single step without spending a minute (& a half) thinking through all of the dangerous circumstances that might unfold. The Ostrich grew up scared & separated.

 

The Goddesses were very nervous.  Not only was this a time of smaller populations (making what seems like a miniscule problem to us into a larger ordeal), but the emerging universe was easily affected by bad attitudes. Fearing that this Ostrich’s doctrine of ostracization would take root, the Goddesses met to determine their next move. Tao said, “I suggest we wash the Ostrich out into the sea & onto a journey”; Demeter suggested, “We should teach the Ostrich to garden, which would make her appreciate her life”; Ixchel suggested that artistic talent would make more sense to the Ostrich; Ma’at proposed corporal punishment; Erzulie recommended a makeover. But all the Goddesses bowed to the wisdom of the mother goddess, Chomolungma, who suggested giving the Ostrich a Child who would teach her.

 

The Ostrich grew pregnant & didn’t understand. She resolved that the Goddesses gave her the Child to punish her for every time she wasn’t careful or safe. So, she prayed to the Goddesses asking to get rid of the Child.  Although they never answered her prayers, through her own personal magic, the Ostrich encased the unborn Child in an ethereal white shell. The Goddesses tried to offer advice to the Ostrich, but could only communicate through symbols & signs. The morning before the Child was due, Austeja placed a thousand bees swarming around the Ostrich’s house. She wanted to remind the Ostrich of the symbiotic & playful relationship between bees & flowers. The Ostrich locked herself inside, petrified. The next day it was impossible for the Ostrich to give birth vaginally because of the shell formed around the Child. So Caesar, the local physician, had to perform a surgery & the Ostrich didn’t feel anything.

 

She respected the Child, fed it well enough & took care of it the best that she could. She decided to teach it how to be safe & careful, so that it wouldn't be punished in the same way that she had been. At first the Child couldn’t understand, it was interested in spinning & hiding & mud, which the Ostrich banned from her house. Fearful of the dangers outside, the Ostrich had the Child sit by itself inside. Everytime the Ostrich sat down with the Child to go through her lessons on safety, she recalled the inexplicable pregnancy in painful memory.

 

Along with safety, the Ostrich found stories to be worthwhile. Growing up, the little Ostrich loved the biweekly village-wide story readings. The Ostrich cowered as far back as she could, still mystified at the romance & the horror told in the same ways she remembered. The Ostrich’s favorite story was about a spoiled princess, sent to work down in a mine. One morning the princess fell down a shaft within the mine & into the center of the Earth.  There she could taste, smell, hear, feel, see, know & connect with everything in the cosmos. The Child inched towards the Hippo storyteller, whom the Ostrich warned against. The Child would talk about its plans to experience grand adventures, like the princess’s, how everything would come together as it should. “But this is real life & that was just a story. They’re different,” the Ostrich always replied.

 

As populations rose, the Goddesses separated regionally in order to manage as many problems as they could. Tao flowed to East Asia; Demeter sowed her values into the Mediterranean; Ixchel spread over Central America; Ma’at ruled over parts of North Africa; Erzulie unwound in the Caribbean Islands. From floods, to avalanches, to flesh-eating viruses, the Goddesses were preoccupied, The problem of the Ostrich & the Child was overlooked & haphazardly solved...

 

They gifted the Child a spiritual guide, an imaginary mother. The Dragon had four claws on one hand & five on the other. & speaking with sparks shooting through its fangs, she whispered secrets to the Child. The Dragon explained, “You can experience anything from the stories. Everything comes together as it should. Stories & real life are intertwined.” Hugging the Child, the Dragon stated, “You are born of the Goddesses!”

 

As the Child told the Ostrich about everything it had learned, the Ostrich grew very grave. Crossing one wing over the other & rolling her head down to the Child’s level, she brought herself closer to the Child than she had ever been before. Her eyes were as tepid as ice; her beak pursed so tightly together, it was as though it had frozen over. With her ears popping madly & her legs distorting at the knees, she glared the child into the Child’s eyes. Just inches away from its face, this was the closest to her Child that she had ever been before. She spat the reasons for the Goddesses’s disappearance. She shouted about the floods & the avalanches & the flesh-eating viruses. She screeched, "You will never desert this house, this shell & these divides that I’ve created for you!"

 

Time progresses. Because of the barricades that the Ostrich created, Helter Skelter lyrics drove people to kill & gender roles murdered those they didn’t suppress. Because of the Ostrich’s invention of “this” & “that”, Bible passages were used as excuses for rape & countries denied outsiders with weapons. At the moment when an Ostrich screeched dichotomy, abuse was born.

Reviews

[Emme]

Wow. This was awesome. There's definitely a lot of insight in it. You did a great job of starting with, more or less, a question and then bringing it back to that question, making us as readers think about.