Isaac in Action

Isaac Being Isaac

Isaac is contemplating his utter limits:

Animal Archetypes

“Animal Archetypes”

One early spring day I decided to drop in on Janice McKay and her sister Daisy. They were pretty good friends who always enjoyed me dropping in. It was early in the day, probably around noon when I showed up. Janice as usual was itching to do something instead of just sitting around being “bored”. Janice was the driving force between these two, and Daisy just kind of went with the flow of things. So after we thought about it for awhile, we figured that a pretty day that wasn’t chilly should be spent at Cooks Recreation area on the lake. So we drove up there and generally clowned around, acted silly and laughed a lot.

But leave it to me to bring up the subject of my latest curiosities. I asked them what kind of animals they would be. Of course Janice piped right up with an enthusiastic, “I’m a cat!” To which we all agreed she was definitely a cat. Daisy was a bit tougher and I think we decided she was some kind of dog. A lot of laughing and poking fun ensued and then I told them to guess my type. Janice suggested a bear and Daisy sort of agreed. But I led them to the gorilla archetype and they got a big laugh out of that. Janice exclaimed, “Yeh Bryson, You sure are a monkey!” Such laughing was going on since girls just love to tease me. Janice challenged me to be a gorilla, “Act like a gorilla!” So I did.

I began to subvert my humanity and take on a gorilla. Calmly, placidly I moved and I could feel that I was a gorilla. The feeling became stronger and I was losing myself in the transformation as I moved easily and observed. Suddenly both of Janice and Daisy were squealing and exclaiming remarks. They started begging me to stop! “He’s really turning into a gorilla!” They both became scared and they were calling earnestly for me to stop. Realizing I was a convincing actor to them, I certainly didn’t want to frighten them. I stopped and just laughed at them. But they were still in shock and both were saying to each other and to me, “You really turned into a gorilla!” “He became a gorilla!” They weren’t funning anymore; they had actually been frightened.

Of course after this event, my transformation into a gorilla was the topic of choice for Janice to all my other friends, with Daisy attesting to the truth of it all. I soon realized that the mindsets among certain of my friends, was to take this seriously enough to act upon it, which they did.

A friend of mine named Van, heard all the details from Janice and Daisy, and he came looking for me within a couple of days. Of course I was easy to find and Van met me at the market where we all liked to pit stop. He was in a good mood and seemed to have some plans of some kind. He suggested I jump in his car and we could go for a ride. Van was being sort of insistent with me in a way that suggested he had some expectations of excitement. He told me that he had somebody he wanted me to meet. I asked who, but all he would say is that it’s a girl. Did I know her? Why do you want me to meet her? He was just reassuring but gave no reasons and told me that I had never met her. Well an adventure waited for my curiosity, so away we rode!

Surprisingly, Van drove us into a neighborhood that I knew of, but it certainly wasn’t a place I went to. It was a place called Tulip Grove. Van drove to a house and pulled in the driveway. Now I was mystified about what was going on. Van told me to come on, and led the way to the front door and knocked. The door opened and there was a young dark haired girl greeting us with quiet placid expectation. She immediately invited us inside in a quiet way, and led us to the den. She and Van talked like comfortable old friends, though I had never ever seen her with Van. We were introduced, and she looked at me freely without self consciousness. I sensed both approval and a question in her eyes. Not just any question, but the “Are you my man?” question. I realized I was being looked at as a potential boyfriend by this young girl who had obviously been expecting us. But why was she interested in me? Why were we being matched up like this?

As I watched her easy relaxed body language, her thin extra feminine frame, I had to admit this quiet girl was very attractive. She had the fair skin, the long dark hair, pretty eyes and something about her that was a little strange. There was an aura about her that was subtly apparent, but undeniably there. She had the subtleties of a gorilla like aura in her features. Far from grotesque, she was actually very fine boned and pretty. Yet the aura was like a subtle spice. When she looked at me it was soulful. This young girl wanted to know if I was interested in her.

The whole situation took me completely off guard. I simply was not ready to be paired off according to being a gorilla type. I didn’t like this set up. She may have been a wonderful girl, but I never took the time to find out and refused to be interested. After a bit Van excused us and we left. On the ride back, Van was enthusiastically prodding me about what I thought of her. Did I like her? Do you think she’s pretty? She’s interested in you! I had little to comment about her. I was actually kind of surprised that people could take this archetype thing this far.

I also began to wonder just who all was in on this stuff? Did everyone know about this, including pretty young girls who want to be like animal mates? Am I the last person to catch onto this stuff? I was beginning to have a shift in how I perceived people. I perceived them as either knowing, or not knowing. So far a lot of subtle people seem to be in the knowing group. It seemed that Van was in. Or if he wasn’t, he just seemed to be able to play along well with a game like situation of animal archetypes.

But when Van said “I have somebody I want you to meet”, the phrase stood out to me.

It became a catch phrase that I soon heard over and over from many strangers, always said in exactly the same way.