Turtle and Badger was first hinted at near the beginning of the COVID 19 pandemic as I was finishing writing my book Turtle and Hawk. In the epilogue of that story, Hawk arrives and interrupts Turtle from his reverie, saying, “I have seen something…” What Hawk had witnessed of course were the first effects of the virus that was quite literally sweeping the globe, and the blinding anger and confusion that accompanied its spread.
It was too soon to begin, and it took me years before I could process what was truly happening. In the meantime I worked. I taught. I read. And I listened. Searching to understand how something so huge had grown and swollen to engulf the entire world. This book is the outgrowth of that search. An attempt to understand how and why humanity came to be so openly at war with itself.
As is so often the case for me I turned to story, and my search led me to a Haida tale I had read years before, “Raven Steals the Light”. It is in its essence a creation myth, an account of how the Trickster Raven searches through the Darkness to find the Light which has been hidden from the world. Through the use of his gifts, Raven manages to steal the Light back, though in the process a large piece breaks off, which becomes the moon, and other pieces fall and are shattered to become the stars. The remainder Raven must ultimately drop over the edge of the world in order to escape an eagle who is pursuing him. That piece of course rises up again each day as the sun.
As I began to work with the story, and delved more deeply into its origins, I began to see ways in which it related to what was happening in the world. For in speaking about the Light that Raven sought, it also spoke about the Darkness that had obscured it. Still possessing only a glimmer of understanding, I saw that I could use my own struggles at interpreting of story, as a way to clarify its meaning. And I created a fictional dialogue between my great collaborator Turtle, and one of his former students, Badger. Together they could investigate the story, and their fictional attempt to understand the increased violence and despair in their world, could very well illuminate what I saw happening in our own.
Of course I did not act alone. I had the assistance of long conversations with friends and colleagues, spread out over the years of writing. Those exchanges formed the basis of Turtle and Badger’s conversations in my story. I also owe a great debt to the artist Preston Singletary, who pursuing his own investigation of the story, had created his monumental glass exhibition, “Raven and the Box of Daylight”. Experiencing his vision was integral in realizing my own understandings.
Briefly, the story the story unfolds as follows.
The story begins with Turtle’s awaking from his long winter brumation. But this season he returns to a world that seems to have changed in his absence. He feels a shadow to be hanging over the pond where he lives. A furtiveness has possessed his neighbors, a sense of fearfulness that is not to be explained by the unusually wet weather, nor by the appearance of a pair of owls who are preying on the small and defenseless. A new reticence has taken hold, and Turtle can acquire no outside insight to compliment his own observations. It is only when he realizes that his old friend Badger might return with the full moon for a visit does he take hope that at last he might find some answers. For Turtle and his former pupil are both keen observers of their world and have spent long hours discussing their experiences.
Badger does arrive as Turtle hoped, but with even more concerning tales of the outside world than Turtle has himself witnessed. Badger relates the violence he has seen in his travels, and an unnatural malevolence that seems to have infected many of his own home’s inhabitants. His worst fears confirmed, Turtle proposes that they investigate a story that he has long known, but never been able to fully decipher. He hopes that with Badger’s assistance they might together come to a clearer understanding of the tale’s meanings, and a better understanding of events which surround them.
And so, Turtle tells Badger the Haida story, “Raven Steals the LIght.” In his telling, the story begins with the beginning of creation itself. And through it was see how curiosity and fear came into being, and how the conflict between the two led to the concealment of the Light that reveals all, its ultimate liberation by Raven, adn how that action brought the world we know into being.
They return to their investigation the following day, with Badger telling the story back to Turtle, a teaching technique they have long used, as the listeners interpretation will reveal much that the teller might have failed to see. Badger does emphasize different aspect of the tale, and it leads to further discussion into the nature of both the Darkness and the Light. Over the course of their dialogue, much is learned, and many questions are raised, though admittedly there is no universal antidote for the virus that has been taking hold. But there is hope, for fear often is set at bay with close examination, and there is a sense of optimism that the Light will survive.
The story ends with an exchange between Badger and a young swan, now soon to ba a student of Turtle, who has come to ask what Badger and her teacher have been talking about. The patience and care with which Badger answers her seem to point a way to move forward. And the two friends part with renewed spirits, and an increased resolve to try and bring others to the Light. For what else can we do.
The book is now available as a print on demand title from Barnes and Noble, Inc., at
barnesandnoble.com