The fetish
by Patricia | 3.09.09One of the reasons I moved from Utah County to San Juan County was to provide my oldest son and youngest daughter greater exposure to nature. Household circumstances have resulted in their being confined to the house more than is natural for children in general but is even more unnatural for children of an outdoors-type like myself. I wanted them to have a better chance at the kind of engagement in the natural world I enjoyed growing up, a level of deep involvement that has provided for me all my life.
But it’s been difficult business breaking up their bonds with interior spaces and tempering their fascination with electronic frontiers. Until recently, many of my attempts at getting them “out there” into the yard and surrounding countryside were met with grim doubtfulness.
That first spring after our arrival in San Juan County I took them to the Four Corners Indian Art Market, held every May at Edge of the Cedars State Park in Blanding, Utah. On display was a wide variety of Native American arts and crafts—silverwork, beadwork, and stonework, including fetishes, images of animals, actual and mythical, carved from stone. My then nine-year-old girl admired a necklace, the showpiece of which was a small horse fetish carved from red jasper, a form of quartz. My daughter begged; I bought. I helped her put on the horse necklace and thought her glow of gratitude worth the eight bucks.
After watching the entertainment, I drove the kids—daughter happily wearing her new necklace—out from town and along dirt roads running through Mustang Mesa, where we happened upon a herd of free-ranging fox-trotter broodmares, many of which had gangly foals. We stopped to admire the spring babies, several of which stared back at us with cuteness-suffused curiosity. Then I noticed a palomino pinto mare down on her side, her hind end pointed conveniently in our direction, sides heaving and back legs stiff, one slightly raised. “There’s a mare foaling right now!” I said. The kids looked, but since few computer games contain images of birth, they had a hard time recognizing what they were looking at. Finally my daughter, ten years old at the time, said, “Oh, yeah, I can see it!”
The foal emerged from the birth canal front-legs-first followed by the head and more of the body. Like a collapsed bubble, the birth sac remained intact around the baby. Every once in a while the mare lifted her head, looked at her hind end then lay back down, neck outstretched, chin slightly raised as she strained with the effort of giving birth. Finally the baby fell onto the ground, still encased in his bubble. At first he lay flat, occasionally writhing in the filmy membrane, a ghostly and weird image. Just as I began to worry he wasn’t getting out quickly enough, his front hooves pierced the sac and he wriggled out, wet and wide-eyed, body spasming. With effort, he sat up and looked around, breathing heavily.
Damp as he was, he looked reddish-brown—the color of the jasper fetish on my daughter’s necklace. His mother stood up, still trailing the birth sac. She nosed him then raised her head and curled her lip—a scent-imprinting behavior, but it looks like a silent bugle of triumph. To give him a good, long look at her from all angles, as well as, I’d guess, to surround him with her own scent, she began grazing in a tight circle around the foal, who lay on the ground, head held erect, legs tucked against his body. Occasionally the mare nuzzled him, encouraging him to stand. He tried, but his legs gave and he collapsed into the dust, rocking comically on his side.
We were already overdue at home and couldn’t stay to watch the foal gain his footing. Reluctantly, I broke off my kids’ involvement in the spectacle of new life and drove away. When we arrived at the house, I said playfully to my daughter, “See? You never know what’s going to happen when you get out there. We buy a horse fetish and then see a horse be born.”
My son, then sixteen, heard. He said, “Wow. I wonder what would’ve happened if we’d bought the dragon!”
March 10th, 2009 at 7:30 am
I live in the big city. (LA)
Here….I am the watched! Here..I am the Nature.
I have 1 or 2 indoor/outdoor cats (well, maybe 3 or 4). If they are awake, their eyes never leave me. They know how to say “feed me”. They know how to say “let me in/out.
They know my behaviors better than I do. They know TV, computer, a book means a head rub for them. They know I am too old to catch them.
They….oh, someone is at the door, they must see my light is on.
March 10th, 2009 at 8:31 am
What a great story. I love when things line up and vindicate the mom. Is there a fetish for that?
Bob brings up an interesting point- that of our pets. It’s come to mind for me at different times as I read posts on nature because, honestly, they often are about all the nature I get, especially when the wind chill is below zero. There’s an intersection of sorts here for me, because I often like to think of the change that came over my kids when we brought home our puppy. Before that, they had had little experience with animals. After that, their awareness was never the same. I could almost feel it exploding outward as they thought about the dog, watched her, saw how we were the same and different, and started noticing other animals more. I was so glad to be able to provide them that opportunity because it was such an important one for me.
March 10th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
Lora and Bob, thanks for the nice thoughts about indoor animals. Bob, that’s a great point about how in your house you are “the nature, the watched.”
And yeah, it’s great when events conspire to back up the mom. Doesn’t happen enough, though.
I’m not a “cat person,” but by this twist and another we have come into the possession of five cats, three indoors/outdoors and two outdoor permas, all young. The indoor cats do spend a lot of time watching us. They squeak when we turn and look at them. They address us in a variety of vocalizations–some of which bear clear marks of what we humans call “the question”–and many body-contact expressions, like the “kitty hug” where, when they walk past you, they wrap their tails briefly around your leg.
Having cats has changed my kids, no doubt about it, especially my son, who before the kittens were born disliked cats immensely.
Working out the relationship between the cats and the hummingbirds who come to the back porch feeders every spring poses something of a dilemma. I’d rather have the hummingbirds than the cats, but hummingbirds are wholly indifferent to our rodent problem.
The hummingbirds study us closely, too. I’ve learned much about eye contact from these tiny birds, whose size belies their intelligence but whose prowess in flight throws off the brightest sparks.
March 18th, 2009 at 6:10 pm
Thanks for this post. Growing up near my parents’ roots in ranching/farming, animals and the outdoors are familiar territory for me. My children on the other hand are the children in the post – too much indoors, too much enamoured with the electronic version of the fetish. Thankfully this summer we’ll spend a month in Utah, with time to get back to my roots. Too bad that’s not fowling season.
March 18th, 2009 at 9:58 pm
jendoop,
Thanks for dropping by and commenting.
Prying my kids out of the house has become less of a challenge over the last two years. At first I had to force them to go with me, but on one of our forced marches into a nearby canyon we managed to creep up on a beaver family—mother, father, three kits. Mother and father were grooming each other, working oils through each other’s fur, and the babies were swimming around, looking devastatingly cute. It was a thrill. The kids converted fast.
These days, I try to take them out exploring with me a couple times a week when weather and other factors are favorable. They trot along willingly now, an attitude I doubted at times I’d ever see. It helps to have a project in the works where they can see some progress or their involvement reflected back to them. For instance, we went out to find suitable subjects for the pictures at the top of the page. I pointed stuff out; my teenaged son took the pictures, then cropped them, etc. I think he’s pretty pleased with his contribution to this site.
Once spring breaks out in full passion we’ll take more trips to gather photos.