First, imagine there is a frog world. A frog world where frogs ride frog bikes and drive frog cars — and every once in a while there’s a frog motor accident, but the frogs move on and the frog world keeps spinning.  Imagine the frog housewives in their frog kitchens. They cook frog meals and tend to frog children. Frogs have jobs and they work daily and have fun on the weekends. Some might have gone to frog college after frog high school. Maybe they have a frog president with a frog cabinet and a frog government. Do you think frogs are democratic socialists or not?  Frogs have free speech and peaceful protests often — they like to know that their frog voices are heard.  

Now, imagine the frogs are in your home.  They live inside your cabinets and make bread on your countertop at night.  Some of the frogs pour the flour and others crack the eggs.  And when they put the pan in the oven some frogs might burn their frog limbs.  Maybe they get a few extra worms for their frog worker’s compensation.  Maybe all the frogs are there in their own frog world — taking one frog day at a time. Once, you saw a frog slip underneath the basement door but he was just running home from work to his frog family.  He carried a small briefcase and wore his very own pair of corduroy frog trousers.  Perhaps his frog wife had already fixed his supper — flies, because worms have too much cholesterol.  After dinner he wraps up his little frog child in a leaf and kisses her goodnight on top of her little frog head.  He retires to bed but lies awake.  He wonders what would’ve become of him if he never went to frog college, never took the frog office job — if he left his old frog pond and saw the wider frog world for himself.  He was once a large-eyed tadpole with even larger dreams.  But now he’s a frog and he has to take care of important things like his frog retirement fund or his frog credit score.  After all, no frog wants to be five years old and still hopping around ponds like a deadbeat.

Now, imagine you live with the frogs and they accepted you as one of their own, would you accept them as your own kin too?  You share a frog-brewed beer with a frog stranger as he divulges his frog secrets.  Maybe he fought in a frog war when young frog men were shipped over-frog-seas to die for the glory of their frog nation.  They used lily pads as their bases of operation and made tactical advances into enemy-frog territory.  Some frog villages were destroyed in the frog-fire but they had to keep fighting.  Lots of frog blood was spilled, but eventually the frog generals said that they had won the war and sent all the frog soldiers back home. The frog stranger lost his hind leg when he stepped in a booby-trapped shrub so he can’t leap anymore.  Now he lies on a bed of cattails as he shows you his frog-medals: a spotted green heart for his wounds in action, the presidential medal of frog-dom for his bravery.  

Now, imagine you are a frog and you know that all your frog flesh and frog blood is shared with your frog brothers. What kind of frog would you be? What would you do if your own frog brother wronged you? Would you scorn him and hide among the milkweed in a dark corner of your pond — or learn to forgive for the greater good of the frog world?  Frogs are interesting characters — they are passionate and altruistic and look forward to holidays.  They are opinionated and amicable and sometimes they wish to make more of their frog-selves.  

Sometimes a frog takes another frog’s life and has to go to frog jail.  I don’t ever want to go to frog jail.