When I was a kid, I read some illustrated stories of Brer Rabbit. I never saw the film, but there’s an expression that’s been popping up in my head some 35 years later. The exact wording doesn’t matter, because the lesson doesn’t change:

Please, Brer Fox! Do anything to me that you want, just don’t throw me in that briar patch!!!

See, Brer Fox had caught Brer Rabbit running around and he wanted to punish him for some reason. Maybe Brer Rabbit was being a jackass, or perhaps he was entirely innocent, but Brer Fox had the advantage of size as well as a malicious streak within. I assume Brer Bear had some role in the story before this point, but I don’t remember.

Upon hearing his pleas, Brer Fox thought:

Well, heck, if that’s where he doesn’t want to go, that’s exactly where I’m throwing him!!

Brer Fox does exactly that, and launches Brer Rabbit into the briar patch. The story ends with Brer Rabbit laughing, hopping away safely in the briar patch, where neither Brer Fox nor Brer Bear can follow.

I never really got the point of this story. But I think there’s a reason it stuck in my head, and I believe it’s very applicable now.

In a literal sense, Rabbit has a safe haven that neither Fox nor Bear can invade without serious injury. Fox throws Rabbit in because Fox is cruel, but also because he believes himself to be smarter than Rabbit.

Notice what Rabbit doesn’t do. He doesn’t try to lecture Fox and Bear on how afraid they are of the briar patch. Imagine how absurd that would be! Fox and Bear have the upper hand here. There’s no conceivable way Rabbit could throw them into the briar patch, so them being afraid of being thrown in, however true it might be in the abstract, is laughable in the moment.

Rabbit also doesn’t go on about how he loves the briar patch. After all, he knows the nature of Fox and Bear. He knows that they are cruel creatures. They won’t show him any mercy. They are looking to inflict the maximum possible suffering with the least amount of effort.

Were Rabbit to persist in talking about how he loves the briar patch, they may well inflict a worse punishment on him, one that he truly does not want.

And while the briar patch is safe for Rabbit, who knows if he actually loves it. I can’t remember the story, if it was actually his home, but clearly he doesn’t want to stay home all the time. It’s not like Fox and Bear tore up the briar patch looking for him. They caught him while he was out and about.

But if he needs to be safe from Fox and Bear, into the briar patch he is thrown, against his stated wishes. Once in the patch, he laughs and hops away, safe from his predators.