PRACTICE 36

Andrea Lee executing a side kick on a mannequin.

Someone made the observation, "I think she is caught between who she is and who she wants to be." This can insult or be a guidepost to someone becoming themselves. - Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories 1.05.14 


model, Andrea Lee on Instragram.

"There was this lioness, see. . ." 

a story 

First of all this episode was on television when it was black & white and there were only three channels, and before we moved to live in Africa.

Daddy, and I were glued to the screen in the living room. Yesterday, a long time ago, people watched TV different than today's viewers. In those days the emotions heavily invested in the moment resounded throughout one's life as a force of change you could chew on as if you'd lived the experience on TV with comparatively more innocence lost in today's extravagances, and subtle urging to hurry on to the next stimulation. Engrossed in excess, lost in the scores of channels the power and simplicity of a moment I am about recount can quickly recede into the background sounds amongst other distractions in the perceptions of today's young viewers. In short, I've noticed the parental screenings of the images entering the mind their children is non-existent, more often than not, and if it is in place it is not as powerful and consistent as it should be in enough children to positively affected sales, or the surrounding community of an average child. 

To this day Daddy and I disagree on whether it was a lioness, or a tiger. I remember a lioness. I can see her muscles smooth themselves out with each glide, and how she moved elegantly with each step. She seemed in sync and aware of everything and every movement around her.  Her young were playful as all young things are on the muddy banks running between reeds with no cares. Mother seemed pensive, and brooding until a sudden look quickly entered her eyes, and left her with a decision to hide her young in the reeds with silent, or implied resolve. The cubs were hidden in the reeds (Daddy and I sometimes tell each other the story, and it is bush, not reeds), and the mother went off thoughtfully to hunt.

It wasn't long before the cubs snuck out, tested the air for her absence, and satisfied she was gone started playing again on the muddy shore. It wasn't long before the largest snake in the world lunged out of the water, and grabbed a cub. There was fright and pain, and panic as the snake made its way back into the waters cub in his mouth. On cue, and all of a sudden the mother burst through the bush in righteous rage, as Daddy puts it. Her power was magnificent! Her terrible to behold! She tore into the snake. The little cub got away with his life, and a ferocious battle began.


Initially, the snake's strength and skill matched the mother's. They fought with fury. The body of the snake had not fully come out of the water we remember. Soon the match became a disadvantage for the snake and he, continuing the fight began a subtle retreat into the water. The seconds seemed longer, Daddy and I remember, because the movements of the snake and the lioness were pristine, powerful and terrifying! There was so much power swirling up and around!

When the mother realized the snake was going away she did the unexpected and dove into the water pulling the snake out, and tore into the snake who was trying to wrap around the mother's body. Mother would not give up trying to kill. The snake would not stop trying to wrap around the mother. The mother's roars split the air with magnificence and terror when the snake somehow got back into the water. This time (Daddy used to say it was three times) mother sank her teeth into the neck of the snake with the deepest sort of finality.

Daddy and I would look at each other reliving this moment and acting out her movements try to outdo each other depicting the way the mother slashed the surrounding brush, and reeds emptying her rage for a very long time, it seemed, on the dead snake until satisfied her cubs standing a safe distance away were save, and the snake was dead, and all living things around and within earshot knew to leave her cubs alone did the rage leave her body. This left her with only one thing to do: lick and fuss over her cubs.

Over the years this story has enlivened many a discussion between us, and others. It was, most importantly to us, a great tribute to the righteousness, and the range of a mother's ability to protect her young. We felt it deeply. As a boy the story, and remembering the images I became a teenager whose sense of my right to protect my mother grew. I grew into a man, who sometimes used legendary acts of violence to protect my wives and children against men who were like that snake. The memory of that battle became a part of what was already within Daddy and proven. It became part of what I already was, and developed into something to be respected, and feared by those who needed to be afraid for their lives. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 1.05.14