Counterculture Blues - a Fable, by Danielle de Valera
In what may seem, at first-sight, to be a charming yarn for children - all of the characters are animals living human lives - there is wisdom and in-sight. Life is tough for most people because a cunning few wield the will-to-acquire like a dragline excavator, and accumulate much more of the world's resources than they need and hoard it for their private benefit. It’s unfair and someone is to blame. If you’re a have-not you have options: you can be ruled by resentment and play the blame game; or you can get on with looking for opportunities to exercise your agency - which, if I am not mistaken, is what counterculture was all about. The family in this fable abides humbly in hope, eschews the urge to blame, and responds resourcefully to a run of mishaps that they brought not upon themselves; until a reversal of fortune, owing nothing to anything they have done, restores them to modest prospects and a future as secure as anyone should count on in a world rigged in favour of the alre