Post by SunnyGirl on Feb 13, 2004 14:25:01 GMT -5
Dust Bunny's Rights
People are so anthropocentric. Yes, some of you have
begun granting the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit
of happiness to whales and cows and elephants, to cats
and dogs and field mice, even to butterflies and bees.
You are proud of being vegetarians, of not using pesticides,
of not stomping spiders.
But what of thingyroaches? The cold virus? Do you suffer
the E. Coli bacterium to live? The mold that burst into
life on the old fruit salad in the back of the refrigerator -
do you let it finish its natural cycle of existence, or do
you flush its aborted remains down the toilet with a shudder?
And what of dust bunnies?
See? You laugh! You do not even recognize " dust bunnies"
as living creatures!
They grow. They move. They obviously reproduce. How
are dust bunnies not alive? How do they not deserve
the same rights and respect as all other living creatures?
Yet when my friends catch sight of the Dust Bunny Refuge
I have created under my couch they recoil. As most
bigots do, they will not admit directly to their prejudice
against non-traditional forms of life. Instead they accuse
me of the sin of Bad Housekeeping. They imply that my
claims to be an activist for Dust Bunny Rights are just a
cover for bone-deep laziness.
They dramatize sneezes. One even had an asthma attack
on my floor, in full sight of the embarrassed Bunnies.
But I have lain long hours on that couch conversing
with the Dust Bunnies underneath. In their world, all
our dreams and glories are invisible, while microbes
are scintillating points of light. They do not have single,
scattered meals, but a long slow dreamy process of
attracting and ingesting dust and dander and lint and
hair. All these particles seem one gray category to us,
but to them each precious piece is unique in color and
shape and size and scent and flavor. They murmur
continuous poetry over each nibble.
I would rather have the songs of my Dust Bunnies than
your great noisy vacuum cleaner any day.
Keep away!
Keep away!
Author: Anitra L. Freeman
. I will be back looking for Lin and others.