His beginnings were inauspicious. Emerging from a woolen ball and shaped by the hands of a devout, lumber-town housewife, this yellow, foot-long bunny sports a dapper blue and red pullover, a jaunty white tail, and a crooked grin. He was destined for the crafts table at an Anglican church bazaar, but was stuffed, as a gag, into a suitcase headed for residences at the University of Victoria, British Columbia. There, he lay on a bookshelf, ignored and unappreciated.
Until his universe exploded.
February, 1983. Five new friends - teenagers with little in common except for a shared bathroom - decided to sit in a small room and try a very big experiment. They dressed in flowing robes. Poured wine. Burnt incense. Locked the door. Hid their watches. And dropped acid.
One hour later, and completely on his own volition (honestly, we saw it happen), the bunny took flight. He anointed our fingertips with cosmic lintballs, and traced iridescent yellow arcs in the creamy air between us. With his reassuring smile and unbounded exuberance, we soon devised a means to communicate with him, and through him. Regardless of where the chemicals took the five of us, the rabbit acted as our talisman, a cuddly homebase for the ego, a cosmic glue that bound us together tighter than we could have known.
We eventually came down. But the yellow rabbit soars to this day. We named ourselves the Water Brothers (in homage to Robert Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land); he named himself Galactic Bunny. Shared equally among us over the years, he has now travelled the world as an Ambassador of Consciousness.
Galactic Bunny has toured Asia, North Africa, and South America in a knapsack. Observed the shifting sands of the Xinjiang desert (link to A Journey to the Far West). Found himself strapped to the gas tank of a motorcycle cruising from Chicago to Vancouver Island. Stared down Communism from the steps of the Kremlin (see photo). Witnessed a proposal for marriage at a bar in Prague. And observed a battle-of-the-bands from a coveted position on the wall behind the drummer, held in place with duct tape.
Today, Galactic Bunny has taken up temporary residence in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, visiting a Water Brother who's completing his doctorate at M.I.T. The rest of us are equally ambitious and far-flung. A college professor. An archeologist. A biographer. A video producer and house-husband in - gulp - North Pole, Alaska. Rarely together, but always united, we five include Galactic Bunny in all our reunions, and hold him dear whenever we explore our inner or outer universes.
Created by David Liebe, 1998. me@davidliebe.com
Site maintained by Adam Jones. adamj_jones@hotmail.com
Last updated: 5 September 2002.
