Stuff About Things
Have you ever talked to a lizard? I dont mean about evolution, or art, or even politics. Lizards dont know about those things, any more than we. I mean about important things, like the weather, or flies, or Why do you brag so much when youre just an ol rusty lizard? Things like that.
If you will approach with caution, and speak in a normal tone of voice, and not crowd them too closely, they will listen better than humans — whom we approach with a rush of zealous fire, and yell at, and step on. Lizards have a lot of feeling. We must be considerate of their rights if we expect to get a hearing.
Sometimes, like early in the morning, you will find them cold, or taking a nap. You can talk your head off then, and get no more response than that of a pew-warmer. If you try to stomp them awake they take off in a huff, and probably never know what the excitement was all about. Very little reasoning takes place in a situation like that. Sometimes one will run just because another did. Man, they are almost human!
Best way to have a real rap session is to get on their level. You dont have to catch gnats or take a hypocritical condescending attitude. But you should try to understand the lizard viewpoint. One of my best conversations began quite casually. I just happened to be drifting in the warm spring sun: admiring wild flowers, wondering where that passing cloud was going; and there was 0l Rusty, perched on a dead limb, apparently watching the same cloud. It was a relaxed situation, we had common interests, and we both learned a lot.
Rusty explained about the bragging That pumping up and down was just his way of cooling off in hot weather, or getting his blood to flow better in cold weather, or maybe looking for a fly. I explained about my grandchild chasing him — she was just young, and wanted to play. No hard feelings, Rusty said, by cocking his head and blinking his eyes. You see how frank discussion helps mutual understanding?
We had a great Bible study: head-nodding, eye blinking, Tom tinkering. The gospel for Rusty was simple. He trusted his Maker, and did what God directed. In that frame he loved me, and I loved him. But there warm compromise. Lizards would be baptized if the Lord wanted it that way.