By John Stratton

The other night I was playing with my niece (whose happy squeals put the "eeeee" in nice!) and was ruminating on The Real Story Behind the "This Little Piggy..." toe-rhyme.

While "this-little-piggying" along with her, I began to ask (and answer): Just why is this little piggy (1) going to market? Why is he/she so Special?

Was he she SENT to market or just took the initiative when he/she saw that there was not going to be ENOUGH roast beef to go around? And just WHY did this little piggy (2) stay home? To try to get some coveted roast beef from the "have" roast-beef piggy (3)?

And what of the "have not" roast-beef piggy (4)? Is he/she a Vegan? Or is this a protest of some sort, hopeless though it be, because we know, here in rhymeland, that he/she is forever locked in the state of "have-no-roast-beef"?

And again we ask of the "have" piggy: did he/she WANT to share it but was FORBIDDEN to by the "market" piggy? Were altrustic impulses restrained by the needs of the piggies -- all of them -- to be in some way involved in the trip to the market?

But, for last: the "wee-wee-wee-all-the-way-home" piggy (5). What secrets lie here? Just where WAS this piggy, if not at home? Was he/she AT the market already? Was this run-to-home an expression of solidarity with the "have not" and the "stay-at-home" piggies or selfish concern about the state of the market itself and what he/she saw there?

Or--especially--we must ask: are piggies 1 and 5 the SAME PIGGY? Doppelgangerschweinen who "go to" and "run from" material and psychic possessions simultaneously? And that ALL THE OTHER piggies are manifestations of this fundamental issue? That "staying" and "having" and "having not" are passive, unacceptable, responses to the "go to/return from" problem of human action in an inhospitable universe, which, though frightening, is the necessary condition of life?

Thus is the nice niece tender psyche thrown and recovered, bungee-wise, from and to the Cliffs of Destiny (Les Falaises du Destin).

Biographical note: John Stratton is a New Haven native who has lived for many years on the shoreline of Southeastern Connecticut. In addition to his professional work with media and creative services for corporations, he volunteers with arts, civic, and educational organizations in the region.

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