THIS AFTERNOON I SAW THE MOST MARVELOUS THING IN THE FOREST. I was working away… when I heard a soft, plaintive bleating. Looking up, I saw a very young fawn, running and stumbling toward and then past me. Then, following behind was another—same size, only a few days old. Next came a doe, moving quickly, clearly concerned. Then another tiny, speckled fawn. And another. And another! And yet one more!!

Reaching the open lane, they all turned around and came back past me again. Six fawns and a doe. Now a white tail deer seldom has more than two fawns, and four is unheard of. But six? Clearly, this doe was doing child care. Or pre-school. How sweet and interesting it was to see. I did not think fast enough to pull out my phone and grab pictures. But you know, I did think afterwards that I heard no grumbling or complaining in the forest about ‘welfare queens.’ Or certain mothers being lazy or not pulling their weight. Or taking advantage of the system. Nor did I hear complaints about teachers—if teacher she was—being overpaid, or getting too much time off, or teaching the ‘wrong’ stuff, or ‘critical-something’ theory, or other such nonsense. Didn’t even hear about certain fawns having the wrong number of spots, or coming from the wrong side of the forest. Nothing like that.

It was just a moment in Nature. Not entirely explicable. But plain enough to call into sharp relief some of the ridiculous things we hear from our supposedly more enlightened species. At least certain sub-groups among us. It is, I suppose, one of the reasons I spend so much time in the woods. Things are clearer there, and life often makes more sense.