“Imagine you’re an animal. What are you feeling?” –
Normally I hate this kind of writing prompt because my mind likes to live in the real world. But as I read this, what flashed on me was an image of a charging tiger. I felt it in the middle of my chest. It’s a protective power, as I used to imagine when my kids were young. I remember a visceral, mental image of springing upon and ripping the throats out of anyone who posed a danger to my kids. Fortunately, the need never arose.
Do I still possess this, now that my kids are off on their own? My aging body doesn’t identify as that powerful. I’m not a cat person – allergic and prefer dogs, anyway – but as an Antifa person I’ve had the automatic urge to narrow my eyes and hiss when confronted with the physical manifestation or even vibe of white supremacist/anti-LGBTQ+/bigot-fascists that are growing in this country. I’ve never heard of a tiger hissing, but I just looked it up and they do. So I don’t need to shrink my inner vision from a tiger to a housecat. Good to know.
That feeling I just described is centered in my face. While I want to retain that, I’d like to get back the powerful feeling that used to rise from my chest.
I’m not a superhero person; I don’t have patience for much that isn’t real, though I will follow Robert Downey Jr anywhere but “Tropic Thunder.” Yet this tiger spirit stirring unbidden in me has movie-superhero potential. I can imagine that tiger fighting for protection and justice.
That stacks up against me in the real world: 69, out of shape, sluggish, achy, sick, low energy. A couch-tiger instead of a fighting one. Is there a way to give the inner tiger more power? When Antifa folks were in the streets a couple years ago, punching Nazis, I wished I were young enough to join them. I’d spent many years as a young activist in the street, nonviolently. Yet this newly arising evil needs to be shut down on the spot. Me in the streets today, inner tiger awake and ready, might hiss and claw but ultimately – quickly – would get my ass kicked.
This assignment makes me wonder if I can pull up the power of the inner tiger and channel it in some truly meaningful way through writing.
Photo courtesy of Mike Marrah at Unsplash
