FROM CUDDLY TO UGLY IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE …
“This is Private FrooFroo,” the drill sergeant said, and he held up the cutest little white bunny with adorable pink eyes I had ever seen. “Pay careful attention because Private FrooFroo may one day save your life.”
In the next blink of an eye, Private FrooFroo was dead, his neck broken by a quick snap of the drill sergeant’s wrist. The training instructor then proceeded to show us how to skin the rabbit to effectively make a fur-lined glove, and how to prepare the rabbit for eating.
For my less-steeled readers, I understand that this post may seem inappropriate if not cruel in some ways. For those who have been through military or survival training, it was just another lesson we needed to learn.
I will admit that I was particularly bothered by this training exercise. I questioned why it was necessary to use a cute, white bunny and to name it “FrooFroo.”
I never asked the question, of course, because Special Forces trainees do not use language like “cutest little white bunny ever.”
That training was many years ago, and yet, I remember it with the clarity as if it had happened yesterday. And while I’ve never had reason to use that lesson in real life, I wonder if I would still remember it as well if it had been done with some nondescript brown rabbit. Somehow, I don’t think so.
Sometimes life’s lessons are ugly and sometimes they’re cute and cuddly. What ultimately matters is that we learn from them.
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