Dave Essinger on a winter liminal - no one knows I am here
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Dave Essinger shares his experience walking in the Bluffton University Nature Preserve: Winter Liminal - No one knows I am here.
The snow in the fields is crisscrossed by finger-wide tracks, and otherwise pristine. One might imagine sticks dragged by wandering wraiths, absent-minded visitors from the other side, but with no other marks at all, at first I can’t guess what really made these traces.
Eventually it dawns on me that the tracks are made from beneath the surface and not above: mice moving under the snow. It’s another “other side,” a real other realm, and a reminder: not everything we register at the interface of our world originates there.
The mouse-trails wind and cross and begin and disappear, and show up in any depth of snow, but they never break the surface that I can see.
I imagine furry mouse-submariners pawing and digging, navigating by scent and temperature and pressure and dead reckoning, never breaching periscope depth. I wonder if lazier mice re-use others’ tunnels or, lacking that kind of foresight, they just go, honeycombing the snow, and with each new errand, extending.
We see only the most peripheral capillaries of a vast temporary circulatory network. Mouse-bodies moving like blood, pushed by the beat of a heart bigger than them, bigger than any of us. (this is a portion of his essay)
This is a sample of the content of "Bluffton Anthology - A creek runs through it." Copies are now available for $24.95 plus tax in Bluffton at:
• Roots by Strattons
• The Food Store
• The Black Lab
• Bluffton Senior Citizens Center
• The Dough Hook
• Polished
Stories Posted This Week
Saturday, November 23, 2024
Friday, November 22, 2024
- Ticket and livestream info for Bluffton Pirates v. Patrick Henry football
- Service of thanks at Trinity Evangelical Lutheran
- Pirate girls basketball beats Hornets in McDonald’s opener
- 100+ voices in Bluffton's Handel's Messiah chorus
- Pirate Worcester named top district defender
- BVHS receives Level 7 achievement in ‘Most Wired’ survey
Thursday, November 21, 2024
- McDonald’s Holiday Tournament, Thursday, November 21
- 2024 Fall Festival in pictures: At the Schumacher Homestead
- Fairy I. Parkins was postmaster of Benton Ridge
- Council committee and residents discuss ADUs, best and worst case scenarios
- BPL hosts Open Crafts and Game Space, November 26
- Women in Business meet November 21
Wednesday, November 20, 2024
- Bluffton Beavers sports roundup, Nov. 13-19
- ODOT prepping for first snow of the season
- Mason named OBL 2024 Banker of the Year
- October 2024 land transfers in Bluffton school district
- November chamber meeting explores member news, Blaze plans and flag etiquette
- Bluffton EMS by the numbers: October 2024
- Children left unattended in running vehicles can lead to abductions
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Tuesday, November 19, 2024
- Tickets and streaming information for Nov. 22 Pirate football playoff game
- Spirit Bus for November 22 football playoff in Findlay
- Tea Bag Exchange & Tasting at BPL, November 21
- Letter: University students learn about Fair Trade
- Join volunteer crew for 2024 Ream Display-Blaze of Lights setup
- Village of Bluffton asks for updated utility billing contact information