#0 SHELF PHILOSOPHER - INTRODUCTION

“Mom,” said Scooter from his most comfortable spot, “Do you have to do this?”

“This?” I asked.

“Tell this rabbit story . . . “

“I think I do,” I said, ignoring his sigh of resignation.

It was the kindest of gestures, the greatest of surprises, and the dearest of gifts when the rabbit I call AristophBunnies brought this picture of himself to me. Without my knowledge, he had commissioned illustrator Jeannie Grisham to sketch his portrait. If you know AristophBunnies at all, you know that he has stories stored in his hare-brain; stories for fifty years unshared. Children’s stories, I was sure, Apparently, the time has come to hear his voice.

ARISTOPHBUNNIES, SHELF PHILOSOPHER, adopted by the Pine family in the late 1960s; Sketched by Jeannie Grisham

The first thing he said to me after presenting his portrait (and showing me where it should hang) was, “Now, about the mess in America.”

“What?”

“Well, your nation’s stressed.”

“It’s . . .”

“It’s got politicians, it’s got religious leaders, it’s got celebrities, it’s got influencers for god’s sake.”

“AristophBunnies!”

“It’s in desperate need of philosophers. I think you could use my help,” he said, reaching up from my desktop with a pencil to mark the spot for his portrait. Then, with a few powerful hops he returned to the shelf where he has lived since coming with us to Heron’s Key. As he turned the corner to the reading room, I heard him say, “Get ready to write, but not for children.”

Have you ever felt you knew someone? You had the perfect picture of them in your mind, and then you meet them and the voice is all wrong, and they prove to be an extrovert not an introvert, and they don’t like Mexican food, and they interrupt you when you speak, and . . .

“I warned you,” said Scooter.

I am ready to write with a rabbit I thought I knew. Coming soon, but I’m not sure for how long, a new blog category: AristophBunnies, Shelf Philosopher.

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