Duck Watch

Since war is one of those human endeavors that is based on boundaries, it is more than likely that Trickster would show his wily head in the vicinity of such activities, and whether it  be having the wrong kind of feast, or cohabiting when he is not supposed to, or stomping the war bundle, Trickster's actions are always a reminder of the cultural nature of war. Of course, we humans would like to believe that our wars are natural, inevitable, and mysterious as the seasons, but Trickster reminds us that war is our choice. We may try to draw sustenance from the aggression of other social species, but war is our invention, our ritual, our practice, and like most of cultural things, it is learned.

In these days, when the order of the world is being transformed by new and old ideologies that celebrate the war bundle, it is fitting to remember that we can learn peace as well.  It too is a cultural invention and although probably as subject to idiocies as any other human endeavor, we do know that with peace we live and with war we may not. So with Trickster let us eat, drink, dance and cohabit our ways around the fatalism of the war bundle, and let us study peace while we still can.

This series of essays proposes to do exactly that; they want to walk with Trickster and look at the process of peace, peace negotiation and peace narratives to see if laughter can really turn away the darkness of forever.

Trickster's Way, Dep't of English, Trinity University, 715 Stadium Drive, San Antonio, TX 78212 http://www.tricksters.org. © Copyright 2003 C. W. Spinks. All Rights Reserved