‘Dear David’
— Joyce Chong
When dolphins die they call out their own name. They do this to make sure their family is close—they do this to remind their near ones: this is who I am. I am here now. I have known joy.
There are many ways to write a story, or to create a poem, and this flash fiction by Yael van der Wouden seems to do a bit of both via a series of advice column letters to David Attenborough. Encapsulating a particular tone and lightness, van der Wouden creates a dialogue between David and these worried strangers that is unrelentingly hopeful and bright, or informative and wise.
There are the parallels we find in nature, in the small ways that life can exist and thrive in its own unexpected manner. There is learning acceptance, coming to terms with death and fear, and there are the little things, all the small joys we’ve yet to take stock of. Feeling worried or lost? Need some advice? Maybe this will help, in just the strangest, most unpredictable ways.
Did you know that palm trees aren’t trees at all, but a type of grass? Did you know that there is no such thing as a tree to begin with, and that the very notion is merely a semantic one – an idea that we have of something that grows tall, something that grows arms? Of something that is rooted below and expansive above?