Shorts

A few days ago a young moose appeared in downtown Portland, home to almost a quarter of Maine's population and its center of wealth. Immediately, forestry service, police, journalists and the public gave chase, the former trying unsuccessfully to shoot the creature with tranquilizing bullets. For three and more hours, up and down main and side streets, back and forth over the Interstate highway, the moose rambled on, the parade in harassing pursuit. Finally, it disappeared into the wooded graveyard in the central city.

Plainly, the moose was playing metaphor in search of interpretation.

Could it be that the lumbering animal was the United States in the Middle East -- lurching into a rich region it did not understand, pursued by militants determined to repel it and causing havoc without ever intending to do so? Could its end in a cemetery tell us something about how the clumsy American venture will end?

Or was the moose pretending it was Ahmadinejad -- arrogantly inserting himself into a world he no longer owned, despite his strong cultural ties to the place. Did he escape harm or capture, but in the process, accomplish nothing and aroused the citizenry against him? And is he aware that hunting season -- with serious ammo -- is only months away?

Perhaps the moose was trying to tell us something about Israel -- How he, with ancient and God-given title to the land, sought to dispossess later-comers and saw at every fearful turning them pursuing him. The moose was convinced they wanted to destroy him whereas, in truth, they only wanted him to relax and stay within his allotted and natural boundaries.

Henry Precht
Bridgton, Maine

AUTHOR
Henry Precht was Country Director for Iran in the State Department, 1978-80.