Public Introspection: Freedom and the Shiny Prize...

I woke up yesterday and found my hand caught in a raccoon trap.

When I was younger, I was a nerdy little reader kid, thick glasses and the whole bit. My favorite books were this series by John D. Fitzgerald called "The Great Brain." The books were set in rural Utah in the late 1800s, and they told of the adventures of the young Fitzgerald boys, including the conniving "brain" child Tom and his brother, the narrator, J.D.

One detail that I remember from these books that was pretty inconsequential to the stories was a description of a raccoon trap that the boys used. It was basically a box with a hole just big enough for a raccoon to fit its little hand through. Inside was something shiny. When the 'coon reaches inside to grab the shiny object, as apparently these animals are prone to do, their balled-up fist is too big to be drawn out, and they're stuck.

I was always fascinated by the idea that all the critter had to do was let go to be free. But the set-up always kept them trapped. They were prisoners of their own natures. They never let go.

All I had to do yesterday, when I found myself in a familiar old 'coon trap was remind myself that I did not have to allow this thing to have a hold on me. I could just let go and be free. But damn that shiny object...

It was my pride in that box, and a slice of entitlement. My ethical code and a compassionate nature that I've worked hard to develop. And the ability to hang on to a small remnant of several wasted years of my life.

Being human, I guess, is just almost as tough as being a raccoon.

I wonder if a raccoon ever had the wherewithal to break the trap, bang it around so much that it just broke off of their hand. Freedom and the shiny prize. That's the happy ending for everyone.

Everyone, I guess, except the trapper...