As time slips by, lessons of charity embed themselves in the most unexpected ways.
Predator Inspection: Remember that phrase… I’ll get back to it in a moment…
Dreams do not always happen when we are asleep. The reality of living can often have a great impact on how we perceive the energy of life. It may be years before we see a conscious event for the lesson that it actually is or was. Time has a way of embedding reality into the subconscious where dreams live and dance continually.
There is an interesting phenomenon that seems to be an integral part of planet Earth… It seems there is no living creature exempt from it’s power and influence.
Yes there is a time and place where this so called power does not exist but that time and place usually cannot be found here this day on Earth, at least not in large quantities or periods of time… The holy grail which is the “opposite” of the subject here, is an entirely different story, you know, that place where every form of life is kind to one another unceasingly. OK, well, I will cover that “kindness unceasingly” subject later on, so… on to this “Phenomenon” I speak of. It can, however be recognized and avoided if one so chooses to do so but… the effort comes at an extreme price of watching oneself constantly to safeguard against the quiet trap that is constantly set for the unaware victim.
What is this phenomenon? What is this power? You define it. You give it a name… Some call it emotional abuse or bullying or undeserved confrontation or intimidation or persecution or oppression or harassment… But, as I said… You name it… Read on…
Cheetahs and Gazelles… Such an interesting relationship… One the prey and one the predator…
If this relationship is carefully observed and hopefully understood, if only on a simple childlike basic understanding, to the observer, this relationship is easily transposed, overlaid, compared and noted in relationships that have nothing to do with animals in the wild.
As a child, I was not priveledged to be granted the ultimate in stature and health as during my early infant years the general consensus of the medical industry was concerned with eradicating the disease Polio.
What resulted from this sweeping desire to contain and destroy this disease was an oversight of how to do it. This oversight resulted in administering the live Polio virus to children in small doses in hopes of triggering the immune system to fight and build a defense against the virus… little did they realize that this, in some children would do just the opposite.
As time slipped away, I found that some of the simple things for some, were not as easy for me. Oh, I did forget to mention that there were a few miracles that occurred in my life which kept me from remaining paralyzed. The doctors had said I would never walk or talk but through what I call miracles of a spiritual nature, my father would often describe me through the years as his child that… Well in his words… “You can’t catch him or shut him up.”
I did find however when being among my peers that the tables seemed somewhat imbalanced. My size and strength were not always equal to that of my peers and by Kindergarten, my parents made the decision to hold me back a year.
Time rolled on and I found all too often that the interaction between children did not always have a silver lining. It became quite clear to me that kindness was not always the default behavior during social interaction. In fact, there were times when the nature of the predator became instincts which I had the privilege of experiencing first hand.
Too many of us so called humans have had experiences in which we have found ourselves the center of attention and not always in the positive light that we so cleverly imagine in our innocent dreams of finding praise and importance.
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Such experiences if viewed in a different light have immense similarities to the wild kingdom. The kingdom where nature plays predator against prey… Cheetah against Gazelle…
Think back in your own history… Have you ever found yourself on one side of the caution tape or the other?
Have you ever been the victim of antagonism from peers of your own species or have you ever found that you were the one creating the energy of antagonism?
This predator vs prey dance that happens from the smallest life form to the most intelligent, doesn’t just spring forth out of instinct or innocence. Sure there are the basic needs of the animal kingdom for sustenance… but there is an underlying current which goes so much deeper that it breeches the very nature of cooperative life.
So many humans desire the perfect dream of peace, prosperity and meaningful relationships and yet, look around and you will notice that the fairy tale life is almost non existent.
What is indeed a more obvious picture is that of the common energy of chaos. Let’s start small, first off…
A school filled with young people, some quite gentle and kind while others quite the opposite. I, being one of them in time found that I had a place among the general populous even in the similitude of that of an African natural plain, filled with all manner of life’s variety… Different colors, different attitudes, different motives which pushed their goals toward the kind of future they desired to create for themselves.
This underlying current of colorful desires intermingling in the river of young social lives, often created unseen currents beneath the visible calm of the social waters. I, on occasion, found myself caught within those currents and not all of them were of the inviting warmth of the sun but held less reassuring outcomes. Cruelty seems the most prevalent description useful to lay claim to the nature of behaviors poured out upon myself and others not so willing to become predators of other innocent souls.
When one observes the cunning of the Cheetah with dangerous grace ever so quietly lurking on the fringes of the Gazelle herd, the obvious nature of what is about to happen is hard to miss unless you are so new to life that you have yet to experience the taking of a life to sustain another.
So it is with human nature as it matures in the hearts of growing souls… Some take upon themselves the role of the predator while others become the prey.
One from a distant observation might jest that to be a member of the prey category is to also embrace the losing party and on the other hand that same observer may very well suggest that the only team worth being a part of is the predator because as a general rule, they always win.
The real question that deserves introspective consideration is… Which category is actually the winner? The warrior or the peacemaker?
At one point in the game of life, I found myself in the company of the prey and always with a cautious watchful eye for that ever so present danger of a lurking predator. Many attempts were made by predators to bring me down, destroy my inner self worth, devastate my social reputation and insight other predators to join in the hunt.
There by chance came the eventual opportunity for me to dawn on Cheetah’s clothing and join in the hunt for the prey. The opportunity came easier than expected when I realized that wearing a facade of darkness could win me a coalition of other predators willing to follow me to the kill.
The prey?, a simple minded individual new to the tried and tested community… without much to offer in the way of beauty… or anything else seemingly desirable to the cause of common collective fellowship. It was easy to torment this person as he had eyebrows that prehistorically carried the look of a Neanderthal man and oh so hastily we dubbed him the monkey man. We stalked him and lurked around his very small arena of safety until he was so cornered that he had no safe haven anywhere as we were able to intrude upon all of his safe zones. The torment was a double edged sword which brought pleasure to the coalition of insensitive beasts and adversely rained down fear and misery on this sole prey which became our unjust target.
I became the lead Cheetah continually inciting the aggression in the hunt of an innocent victim or in other words… Had I been a Cheetah and he the Gazelle. My coalition of Cheetah’s would have surely had him as our kill each fighting for a piece with which to satisfy our hunger.
I found that wearing the costume of a Cheetah brought safety and reassurance to one who was once also considered the prey. As long as I paraded my bright yellow background and deep spots of darkness, I was immune from being mistaken as the prey.
Remember that phrase I promised to get back to you with it in a moment? … Predator Inspection:
Predator Inspection is a very interesting thing that happens when a herd of Gazelles is surrounded or stalked by a coalition of Cheetahs… Despite the increased danger to the Gazelle, an interesting behavior erupts when the tension of being hunted increases… The Gazelle instead of running will turn as if in enhanced curiosity toward it’s predator and begin what some would refer to as an inspection of the predator.
This behavior although risky in nature seems to have an unseen power with which to defuse the predator’s focus. Instead of becoming a fun entertaining game for the predator to run and pounce after a frightened, “on the run prey”, the prey turns and faces the enemy in such a way that the entire focus of the kill seems completely disrupted.
Liken this to a secret sin that might be kept quiet behind closed doors where the thrill of “wrong doing” almost becomes more entertaining that the actual sin itself. The alcoholic secretly drinking against the wishes of the family. The burglar cautiously entice to the thrill of a midnight break in. The poacher desiring to bring down the creature while doing such against the wishes of the law… So is the nature of the predator.
If the prey is a willing participant and does it’s assigned part of being filled with fear and fleeing for safety, the hunt becomes a living entity all and completely in itself, a thrill beyond just the simple kill.
Predator Inspection: This is what happens when the prey refuses to take upon itself the role of the prey. The Prey instead, now turns to face the enemy and does so in such a way that the entire thrill of the hunt is disrupted and the focus is broken thus resulting in a deflation of the entertainment of the hunt.
This is where I found myself one day as I stalked and pounced upon my prey… I was confronted with these simple words… The Prey turned to me and said… “What do you have against me?” The prey had replied to my advances…
This was not supposed to happen… This was out of the ordinary… disturbing to the hunt… disruptive to the process of the kill… The prey is not supposed to act this way… Respond… This is not how the game is played…
I was so taken back that I was left speechless… Speechless… For some time I just stared into the eyes of my prey and tried to understand what had just happened? After a time I did the only thing I could think to do…
I responded… “I don’t know?” I said to my prey sheepishly… “I don’t know?”
I was so taken back by the prey’s response that all I was left with was confusion which soon morphed into an apology.
It wasn’t long and the Gazelle that I had been hunting for so long, invited me to graze in his pasture…
I removed my Cheetah’s clothing and joined him. It was a peaceful meadow filled with a stream and wild 
flowers figuratively. I became his friend… In fact we became best friends and the risk of removing the Cheetah costume and facing the fear of becoming the prey again was far out weighed by the new and intriguing friendship that had been born of honesty and kindness.
I have since spent my days in the pasture of the prey. I have embraced becoming a peace maker and have become a winner by far by immersing myself in charity and concern for others feelings and how they would wish to be treated.
In the long run, it never hurts to have the power of a predator in order to protect oneself and loved ones from unseen threats but the winner will always be the peacemaker.
Copyright © A Book Of Dreams
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