01 september 2005
RABBIT RABBIT RABBIT
By Nanci Olesen
“Rabbit Rabbit Rabbit” is what we say in our family on the first day of the month. It is about good luck
and all. I learned it on a canoe trip.
There are gigantic rabbits lounging around South Minneapolis, standing in our overgrown vegetable garden, unabashedly.
It’s confusing. I thought that at least they were shy, or fast moving, like it seemed they were in the story of
Peter Cottontail.
Everything is confusing. It’s confusing to even imagine the devastation in Louisiana. I can’t comprehend
the filthy water and the mayhem of not knowing where things are or what, who’s alive or where. My friend Ric is
dying of cancer in such an eloquent way. He showed his friends, on a canoe trip in the wilderness of Canada, that you
can be hilarious and dying at the same time. Oh, how we laughed. On my brave days when I think of him, I am not confused
at all.
Our children, 15, 11 and 10, have their school clothes. One new outfit each. They have their band instruments and their new Converse tennis shoes. They are not interested to hear that I wore
Converse tennis shoes when they were in the height of fashion some twenty five years ago. They are sligthly interested
that I know the words to all the Beatles songs that they know and love so well. Just slightly. And I have to oh-so-casually
nod when I see that my son has bought the Clash album that I listened to in college. Vinyl is cool. So is The Clash.
But I must not confuse my experience with theirs.
The world is quietly turning from summer to fall. I have been swimming
laps at the lake near my house. Six laps a day. Back and forth. Tonight I ran two more laps in the shallow water, up
to my thighs, pretending like I was on the Southwest High School Soccer team. I saw them doing this the other day at
the very same beach. This half hour in the water stifles my confusion, completely, every day.
Some of my friends have
kids starting kindergarten. One of my friends dropped her son off at college today. I find it confusing how fast the
time goes by.
"Rabbit Rabbit Rabbit" to you and yours, whatever your stage of motherhood may be.
—Nanci Olesen
producer and host, MOMbo: 1990-2007 |
