Here There Be Badgers

Vickie (Grandma) and I were invited to go on the Trek with the youth in our LDS stake early this summer.  "Trek" is where a bunch of youth, and their leaders, go on a multi-day walk, pulling handcarts, in the wilderness.  We do this for a number of reasons.  We want to have the youth experience, to a degree, what our pioneer fore-bearers did in pulling all of their possessions across the country in small handcarts.  It gives them time and experience with each other in random "families", so they have to learn to get to know and work with those outside their normal groups. And other stuff.

Well, enough background about Treks.  I'd just like to say that I am glad that Grandma went on the Trek, since that made it so I was not the oldest trekker...

The theme for this trek was to "Look In, Look Out, Look Up".  Each day emphasized one of these.  "Look In" was for introspection and to help figure out who you are.  "Look Out" was to help us remember to look at opportunities to serve those around us.  And "Look Up" was a reminder to look to the Savior for help, strength, guidance and peace as we go through life.

Each of these merits much thought and discussion.  But I will leave that for others or another time.  I want to share a few thoughts about one "Look" that was not officially part of the Trek Theme, but was a practical and necessary "Look" for this trek.

Which brings me to the topic of badgers.  Prior to this trek, I had only seen 1 badger in the wild in my many years of looking for badgers.  I am getting old enough, and said badger sighting was long enough ago  that it might have been just some random neurons firing in my brain, making me think I had actually seen one of these mythical creatures in their natural habitat.  Think about it--Have YOU ever actually seen a real-life badger?  I mean other than in the zoo, as we all know most of the animals in zoos would never make it in the wild.  That is why they are living the cushy life in the zoo.  The "badgers" in the zoo are not Real Badgers.  No-Real Badgers live outside of those places.  In other places.  Where Real Badgers live.

Well, on the trek, there were badgers.  Real Badgers.  How did I know this?  Did I actually see any Real Badgers?  I'll answer that later.  Meaning, no, I did not see any badgers, real or zoo-type, for the first 3 days of this trek.  However, I was sure that there were Badgers right from the first hour of the trek.  You may ask "How did you know there were Badgers-Real Badgers-if you didn't see them?
Well, I'll tell you how.  One of the smaller trekkers, pushing her family handcart from behind (now, that is a bit redundant, don't you think?  If she had been pushing from the front, she would have been trying to get said handcart to go backwards.  I guess she could have been pushing from the side... If the angle had been right...)  Where were we?  Oh yes, on Trek, with the Badgers (the Badgers were not officially Trekking).  That we hadn't seen--Oh, right, the small sister was pushing the handcart (you can figure out where she was in relation to the handcart, right?), Sister Edge and I were walking along the side, slightly behind, and this little Sister disappeared!  It was like she had been swallowed by the Earth!   And she sort of had!

Badgers, you see, make holes.  Big holes.  And the larger the badger, the larger the hole.  They seemed to have a penchant for digging these holes right along the route the Trekkers were Trekking.  Those pulling the handcart (I'm sure you have already figured out that these Trekkers would be in front of the handcart-in order to "pull"-right?) had a clear view of the hazards of the holes  and would nimbly step over or around them, being, for the most part, young and clever trekkers.  Those pushing (remember-they would be behind the cart... oh, I'm sure you have all this straight in your mind by now.  At least I hope you do) did not have such vision.  their gaze was fixed on the back of the cart, the contents of the cart, or the back of the cute young man/young woman in front of them pulling the cart.  As a result, they were prone to step into the Badger holes.  Some of which were made by exceptionally large Badgers!  Real Badgers!

And this small sister found an exceptionally large Badger hole.  She wasn't even looking for it.  It just appeared all of a sudden from under the moving handcart, and her first inkling of its (note the proper un-use of an apostrophe in the preceding word-ask your parents if you need to learn when to use "its" and when to use "it's"--if they don't know, then ask Grandpa-he'll make something up that sounds good) existence was when she disappeared into it's black interior.

We thought we had lost our first Trekker!  Grandma and I were a bit worried because our job was to tend to the health and first aid needs of these young people.  We were prepared for cuts, scrapes, allergies, sprained ankles, headaches, stinky feet and silly ears, but we had no first aid for Acute Badger Hole Disappearance Syndrome!  We started to get a bit worried until someone shone her flashlight down the Badger hole and we saw the reflection off this small trekker's glasses.  Whew!  What relief we felt.  After we fished her out (have you ever been fishing in a Badger hole?  We have.  For Trekkers-not Trout) with a length of strong rope, made sure that she hadn't been attacked by the exceptionally large Badger, and that she had no other injuries that needed attention, we put her in front of the handcart (where she would pull, correct?) and where she had a great view of the badger holes before she stepped into them.

Clever little trekker that she was, she immediately starting warning those behind the cart (the pushers) of upcoming badger holes.  She would sing out "Hole Right!" or "Hole Left!" or "Hole Middle!" and those pushing (behind the cart--I'm sure you have this "pushing" and "pulling" and the relative positions firmly in mind by now, don't you?) would then pay attention and not step into the Badger holes.  One difficulty was with Grandma.  Next time you see her ask her to quickly raise her left hand (or her right) sometime.  Not a pretty sight seeing a 60-something professionally educated, very intelligent, well-married and attractive woman struggle to remember which is left and which is right.  She was better off pulling than pushing.  But most everyone else, when they were paying attention (don't we end up paying more when we don't pay attention?...), were able to alert, or be alerted, to the existence of the terrors of the Badger holes.  Made by Real Badgers.

OK-the lesson here?  Yes, Look In,  Look Out and always Look Up, but also Look Down, or wherever there may be trouble coming-sometimes in the form of badger holes, sometimes in other forms that aren't so obvious, and warn your friends, siblings and those around you of the dangers you might recognize.  Don't be surprised if you have some friends that seem to want to find the Badger holes to step in, just to see how it feels. Or if they don't pay attention to your warnings.  This happens sometimes-especially with adolescents.   We did treat a good number of sprained ankles on this trek.  Those trekkers did not do so well.

As for You-You pay attention (so you don't have to pay even more when you don't) to those trying to warn you of holes and dangers they may see that you can't, since you are being so diligent with your pushing of the cart.  Your parents, grandparents, some of your teachers and your friends who are True Friends (I may tell you about some of my True Friends sometime)  are good warners.  Listen and respond like the un-knuckle heads you are.  Life goes better, and we are able to do more and find more joy when we aren't always stepping into stinkin' Badger holes, made by Real Badgers.  And before you ask, yes, Badger holes do stink.  I mean, just imagine what one would find in a Badger hole-ends of worms, remnants of Badger meals, rotting badger fur, Badger, uh, "leavings"-what becomes of the Badger meals in the end.  Or from the end. Well, you get the idea.  You should have caught a whiff of our small Trekker after her dive into the Badger hole!

And, yes, on the last day of Trek, we saw a Real Badger.  He-or it may well have been She-I don't pretend to have expertise in distinguishing Badger gender from 50 yards-was poking its badger head up out of its Badger Hole to watch us go by.  White stripes on its cheeks.  Looked kind of cute.  But I understand you wouldn't want one for a pet.  So, yes, Real Badgers do exist.  They are not mythical.  Neither are their holes.

It's been fun talking Badgers with you.  Now go kiss you Mom and Dad, tell them you love them and go to bed!  Oh yes, remember that Ratty is distantly related to Real Badgers....