For this Thursday’s “Little Big Moments,” here are two stories of post-election allegory and personal experience. May they provide you with a small piece of comfort and camaraderie this week.
The Green Vote
It may be that, after huge national news, you need a story about a tiny treefrog.
On Election Night, my wife volunteered at the polls, so I was boiling water on the stove for mac ‘n cheese. Right at 6:30, our three children burst through the back door after galavanting in the streetlight-lit alley with the neighborhood kids. We soon learned that they were not alone. I was about to tell them to wash their hands when my oldest shouted, “Frog!”
We have a family dog that I affectionately refer to as House Wolf. She chases squirrels, moles, songbirds, and small neighborhood kids. She also has developed a taste for amphibians freshly killed along the banks of our local creek.
Fortunately, just prior to the arrival of our unexpected guest, House Wolf had begun to eat her dog chow from her bowl and was thus distracted.
I spotted the bright green frog on the wooden floor and lunged at it, but the little guy hopped onto the wall. I reached again and cupped him in my hands; however, he wiggled free as I attempted to reopen the door. Shrieks from the kids.
House Wolf looked up from her bowl at this commotion and, I swear, licked her chops. Life has been full of unexpected treats lately, including Halloween candy bar wrappers carelessly discarded under the kitchen table.
Thankfully, my youngest daughter was too quick and gently captured the frog once again. I held open the door as she ambled out to the pond to return the frog. Early the next morning, I discovered that most of the election results did not go my way. However, for one particular frog, who for a brief time was a candidate for dinner, all is well that ends well.
Seeking Light
I’m reading the news reports of this terrible Trump victory, and a fly is buzzing, buzzing against my window blinds. I try to shoo the little guy out of the office, but he turns from the open door every time and heads back for the window.
It’s tempting, I understand, to seek the light. But there’s a screen over my window that does not open.
Damn it, I want to save this fly! Here’s something that I can do to help.
As I’m trying to figure out how to remove the screen without damaging it completely, I suddenly realize that I haven’t heard the buzzing. I look around. The fly is gone.
Figuring it slipped out the door after all, I sit back down and begin to read text messages from loved ones that have come pouring in this morning.
The fly lands squarely on my laptop keys. Carefully, oh-so-meticulously, I cup this tiny winged creature in my closed hands. It does not struggle. I walk out of the building and open my hands. The fly hesitates for a moment, then takes to the air and disappears.
I go inside, sit back down in my chair, and laugh. I cry and laugh again.
Andrew Taylor-Troutman is the author of “Little Big Moments,” a collection of mini-essays about parenting, and “Tigers, Mice & Strawberries: Poems.” Both titles are available most anywhere books are sold online. Taylor-Troutman lives in Chapel Hill where he serves as pastor of Chapel in the Pines Presbyterian Church and occasionally stumbles upon the wondrous while in search of his next cup of coffee.
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