Wednesday, September 7, 2011

The Coon Cosmogony
by McKinzie

    Once, many years ago, there lived a wild pack of Raccoons. They ran all day amongst the stars playing, and running, and racing, until one day as they were traveling they came across a lone Woodchuck who existed only to eat all the stars in the heavens. Surrounding the Woodchuck was a huge expanse of empty space where the Woodchuck had eaten all of the stars. The Raccoons disheveled by the emptiness, as they could not cross the empty space with no stars to step on, and they could not simply make more stars because they would only be eaten again. And so, a young Raccoon and an old Raccoon determined together to create a series of planets that they could use to cross the heavens, but that were too big for the Woodchuck to swallow. They liked the new planets so much that they spread them all over the universe so they would never again have to worry about empty spaces.
    They crossed over all the planets they had created, and passed from one planet some of its dust and dirt and colors, to all of the others. The more they crossed each planet, the more beautiful they became. Soon sounds, sights, and feelings were spreading across the galaxy until certain planets became so great that they could only exist to have been home to some creature.
    And so the next time a Raccoon ran over one of these most beautiful planets, the touch of its paw created life. When the raccoon that did this saw what had happened he was surprised. The Raccoons then realized that they couldn’t cross these most beautiful planets anymore or they would crush all the life that they had created. So they marked that part of the heavens off with a sun so they would know even from far away not to cross that part of the stars.
    And the Raccoons called these spaces with life, where they could not run, Earths, just as they called their burrows in the heavens.
    The Woodchuck was then left to eat stars undisturbed. And he still swallows them today, unnoticed by the Raccoons, who, now without worry, have eyes only for the planets which they have created. But the life upon their Earths have eyes for all, and still feel it every time the Raccoons run too close and shake the Earth, and see it every time the Woodchuck dines and a star disappears.

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