Skunklet—

How did you come to be so small? I am very unsmall, and I have never experienced being truly short. What joy do you find down there among the dandelions and shrubs?

—Solidarity
Denny

`Down there'? \emph{`Down there'?!} Why I oughta...

But in reality, it is nice being small! It kind of sucks when you need to run everywhere but your legs are too short, and there are times when I wish I was not relegated to climbing up on the counters to reach stuff — which is rarely! I can reach most things! — but it is all about the ways in which others treat you, yes? The troupe treats me like my raison d'être is to have fun, and they are right to do so. I can sit in laps! I can fit in small places! I can act like a frickin' kid and the automatic reaction of everyone around me is to just accept it. It is really affirming when the things you want out of life all boil down to the hedonism of play.

My tail gets stepped on, I get kicked out of places for being too small, I get sneered at for doing some unspecified horrible thing — seriously, I have asked, and it is all bluster with no basis when someone gets fussy about the aesthetic — and it is all absolutely still worth it for the joy inherent in life down here among the dandelions and shrubs.
