Estranged Species

What was it? Was it all that time away from your birthplace? Was it all that time you spent traveling, crossing the oceans, always moving? I thought I saw you back where we once hung out, on the Carolina shore line. You seemed to be taking things more slowly, like you were carrying some tremendous weight on your back. I don't know what you've seen, but you seem hardened. Is my friend still in there?

You're onto me. And it seems you're not happy with the truths you've tracked down. It's for the best, because this has really been eating at me. I can skirt around these things for a while, but eventually they come back to bite me. I'm afraid this distrust has been mounting, and now there is a definite strain on our friendship. Will you ever believe me again?

You've got it so easy. You can imagine my surprise when I saw you taking a morning bike ride last Tuesday. It's not your habit to be up before 2pm, or out of the house before Judge Judy. No I take that back. I faintly remember an afternoon where I caught you Hula-Hooping with some buddies in front of the co-op market. I don't know if you were "centered" or if you were just worn out from an all-nighter of Playstation. My guess is that you had another late night case of eucalyptus cravings. Well, gotta get to work. Good seeing you.

When Jason Whitman sent me a link to his Estranged Species series on Etsy, I was a bit perplexed as to why he stuck these finger-puppet-like heads on the outline of a skeleton.  So I asked him, and the reason made me appreciate his work so much more.

Jason says of his work,

"The animal heads just stand in for personal shortcomings we all have, and have to accept.  The skeletons are the unifying element.  Like, I know you got problems, but so do I and so do they.  I wasn't really sure where I was going with it at first, but then I read this Vonnegut bit where he was talking about Moby Dick and an act called "flensing," where the whalers would cut down to the bone, because it was the only way to get to the soul.  Something about forgiving the soul for what the meat had done.  Reading back over that, it sounds a little more disturbing than I meant.  I don't know, but there's something fragile and tender about that hard structure in each of us. That was probably more than what you asked for.  I'm a little rambling without coffee.  Anyway, thanks for asking."

I definitely recommend going to his Etsy site and reading all the little excerpts under each animal head!  I hope they make you smile.