What Does The Fox Do?

I love this song.



I even know the words now.

I like it that the seal says "ow ow ow."

This makes it clear that the song comes from somewhere other than the United States of America.

Here, the seal barks.

But never mind.

I'm one who pays attention to what walks into my world.  I'm a cat person.  I grew up loving horses.  When I first started to study animal totems 15 years ago or so, the Cat showed up as one of mine, as did the Horse.  In fact, the Horse represents my female energy.  My male energy (and I say this at the risk of alerting opposing counsel to a tidbit of information usable against me) is The Weasel, which is an animal known for entering enemy camps under disguise as a friendly sort and gathering information in that disguise.

I do that pretty well.

Oh, I'm happy to stay friendly.  My schtick (if it can be a schtick) is that I am forthright and oriented to the bottom line, and that I understand how we all have constraints.  In short, I bond with the other side by empathizing.  But do not mistake this for a soft underbelly.  Do not make that mistake.

Once I was accused of being Columbo - you know, Peter Falk.  It was after I came back to that opposing counsel's office unexpectedly, having forgotten my raincoat (!), and caught the attorney anxiously discussing my visit with his legal assistant - even though he'd been calm and cool during the meeting itself. 

I also believe that animals enter our lives for the purpose of telling us something, or helping us along.  So when I saw deer nearly every day for a couple weeks, I took the cue and softened my edges a bit.  I let life be kind for a moment or two. I lodged in my brain that I might benefit from taking a gentle view of the world on a long term basis, when letting down my guard would cause no harm.  I embedded in my brain the thought that "guard up" perhaps should not be my default mode.  The law does create edges out of necessity - and it's up to me to remember myself even in the midst of a legal event.  I have The Deer to thank for the reminder.

So when "What Does The Fox Say?" started making the rounds, and I started turning it up on the radio and playing it for my nephews who love to dance along, in the back of my mind I wondered.... what does this mean for us?

This is not a few deer showing up at my back door over a limited period of time as a brief reminder.

This is The Fox showing up for the world.

I have introduced the song to lots of people, and have noticed that everyone enjoys it - old and young both - and wants to hear it over and over.  It isn't just me.  I have thought about how accurate the song is - what DOES The Fox say, anyway?  I have listened to fox sounds on youtube - of real foxes.  This is not something I would have done before.  The Fox truly has entered my life - and has entered the lives of so many of us.

I noticed an article that actually began the question of animal totems in relation to this video, and spoke about how we might have a totem animal or a power animal, that one may be there for a lifetime and another might be there for the moment.  The article said that The Fox carries the qualities of cunning, clever, adaptable and strategic.  According to the article, if The Fox enters your life, it signals that you should trust your intuition, pay attention to your senses and let them guide you, use your intelligence, think about breaking ouf of your routine, and look for ways to express yourself more freely.

I thought about this in relation to The Fox entering my personal life these last few weeks.  I enjoyed the read.

What was odd about the article, however, is that it did not ask the question (and thereby did not answer the question) of what happens when an entire world has The Fox enter the lives of its inhabitants, as The Fox has entered this world's consciousness through this song.

Perhaps not everyone knows the song.  But the youtube video has had, to date, almost 230 million views since it first was posted about six weeks ago. 

So - and as the heading on this blog entry reflects - what does The Fox do, when he enters the consciousness of the whole world like this?

I'm not sure.  But I'm interested in knowing more, and imagining what.