The rabbits of Watership Down were thrust into the unknown, and discovered that each of them had unique gifts that were needed by all. These gifts were evoked by the very lack of security they found themselves in. Dandelion told stories that evoked courage. Strawberry knew how to build among the roots so they could gather underground. Hazel’s ability to think for the group and Bigwig’s fearlessness, like all the other abilities, developed over time. But so did the general recognition of these gifts. Leadership emerged as individuality became necessary. In Watershed Community, the same process has evolved. Each of us can only serve the community, and the world, as we discover our individual voice, in the context of others. And as we see people becoming themselves, we learn to trust their leadership.

Not all the rabbit trails are helpful ones, and so too with our own community. When Hazel must stay behind while others go on a diplomatic mission to Efrafa, he hatches a plan of his own. For once he doesn’t think of the group, but instead is caught trying to showoff. He wants to raid a nearby farm and bring back two rabbits before Holly returns. His egotism has dire effects on himself and others, as he gets shot and is left for dead. Many of us at Watershed Community have acted egoically, either thinking we needed to prove ourselves,or thinking that our actions didn’t affect those around us. Egoism always swallows up a person’s uniqueness and distracts from the vision of Spirit in Community. It actually diminishes a person. Many of us have the limp to prove it.

Entering the rabbits’ stories helped me understand our own, like when young King Arthur, in T.H. White’s The Once and Future King spent a day as a fish or a bird. This experience helped Arthur understand how the fast-moving salmon escapes a net, and the gregarious goose is encouraged to migrate long distances, lessons which he applies later to his kingdom. When Hazel rescued a mouse and later a gull, he was starting to learn to see from its point of view, so that both rabbits and mice could live beneficially together. The rabbits learned to befriend other species and to learn from them.

But at first Bigwig and the other rabbits scoffed at Hazel’s intuition. They couldn’t understand, and the otherness of the mouse made them wary. At Watershed Community we value the story of Christ who invites everyone to the banquet. Like Bigwig, we need to learn to put aside the fear of otherness. Like King Arthur, we need to learn how to see from others’ eyes. The other can be a stranger, but can also be someone known who is at a different place in their life. Just as Adams’ writing from the rabbits’ perspective made their language and culture plausible to us, learning a second-person perspective opens up a new world. Bigwig didn’t see it at first, but he trusted Hazel, and so decided to try the idea. Later he became best friends with Kehaar the gull.

Watership Down evolved into a place that included different backgrounds, encouraged creativity, and allowed the rabbits to live naturally. Jesus taught of such a place where all are invited home to live free, in communion with the Creator, and guided by love. Jesus seemed to believe this Kingdom was coming soon, or was already here. Perhaps he even said, consider the rabbits….

Adams, Richard. Watership Down. Penguin Books: Toronto. 1972. 478 pages.