“Ferrets,” I cried on the phone to Titmarsh. “Don’t go there,” he replied. But we must. Ferrets to rabbits are like dachshunds to rats. Before enclosure of the common pastures in England in the 18th century and surely after, rabbits hunters used ferrets to chase my kind (the Authorial Rabbit) out of holes. Jills (female … More Ferrets

***** “Depressed?” “No, certainly not. Not at all.” “Finished?” The Doe I Know (DIK) lays her hand on my furry shoulder, rubs my long ears. “It’s gone,” she consoles. “The cycle continues. Let it go. Remember the Tao.” The Authorial Rabbit lumbers about the family nest, staring upward through the entrance hole at the dark … More Just Julian

The AR imagines his vieux amis Virginie Lebeau and Francois de Paule. They are friends of Eric Satie. More than friends. They all live in a tiny apartment in Arcueil. Within is chaos. Two grand pianos are stacked one on top of the other, the top one used for storage. So many manuscripts, scores. The … More Eric, and The Way We Live Now

(Thank you to Daniel Govar of Deviant Art for this image.) What is the mechanism of belief? The Authorial Rabbit received a phone call from his reclusive friend Johannes de Silentio, a fearful citizen of the American project who at last count was living in a trailer in the desert in the southwest. The call … More Belief

The DIK (Doe I Know) was born in Austria during the Hitler regime. She understands what always happens in authoritarian states. She scrounged for food in Vienna amid the desperate rubble in the aftermath of one. Malnutrition twisted her bones and transformed her mind. She knows how rabbits can grow too excited by strong leaders … More Samfundssind

Titmarsh is a kidder. “Have you seen the Tao lately? he asks. The Authorial Rabbit does invest carrots in the stock market. Titmarsh hopes I will be confused about the Dow and the Tao, and his grin in a cheering sight to see. “The Unseeable Tao?” I retort cleverly. He sags in the Adirondack chair … More The Tao Today

As David Brooks writes in his excellent historical analysis in the Atlantic, trust is the essential ingredient of a healthy society. Decaying and failed states can be measured by the trust the population has in its government, its institutions, and among each other. The AR enjoys Mr. Brooks’ presence on the PBS evening news on … More Two Types of Trust

(Photo by Mike Quinn) The AR is long-lived for a rabbit. His grandparents were foragers — farmers in rabbit-speak. His parents joined the great migration to the city and became small merchants. They specialized in footwear for rabbits and hares, whose feet other merchants would not touch. In an age of online and the big … More The Neighbourhood Store

Titmarsh has rushed over. He warned me he would come. He has that smug, complacent look, which means he intends to one-up the Authorial Rabbit. We sit in the back yard, distanced, one wine bottle, two glasses, the sun beaming down on our hairy faces in our cushioned chairs, our eyes for the moment closed. … More The ONE Remains

Rabbits live in tribes. So do humans. The need, nay, the desperation, to remain in the tribe can and usually does override reason in human and rabbit brains. Evolution made it so. One plus one et al. can survive better than one. It is said that beneath the rational mind’s narratives, fantasies and illusions, the … More Tribal Paradox