Another day, another Bobbledy birthday card. This one is from Lucy, a young writer from Massachusetts, who, we are told, is busy at work on a manuscript about an outcast insect in search of higher meaning.
While she toils at revisions, she continues to have birthdays, and lucky for us, decided to send in her card.
Being a writer, Lucy opted for the ultimate economy of language by sending along no words to accompany her drawing. Instead, she offers the 1,000 implied by the picture itself, which is a stirring scene of mutual terror.
I can understand why the cat is afraid of the mouse: the enormous size, the telltale sign of blood dripping from its murderous jaws. What I cannot know is what has that beast of a mouse so concerned. It easily outweighs that weakling of a cat 2-to-1.
I suppose in spite of it all, we fear our opposite, the other half of the dialectic by which we are defined.
This, I am sure, is Lucy’s point. It is a deep proposition for a child’s birthday card, but then again, Lucy is no ordinary child.
Please join me in saying HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LUCY!
We can’t wait to read your story when it’s finished.