One of the best things about living in a City like New York is having ready access to its cultural institutions and museums. The American Museum of Natural History, through the work of generations of scientists, collectors and curators can be seen as a library of nature itself. The Division of Vertebrate Zoology houses one of the largest collections of vertebrate animals in the world. It has approximately 3.5 million specimens, preserved in alcohol, or as dry skins or skeletons. The Division also maintains collections of approximately 15,000 tissue samples for DNA and other genetic and biochemical analyses.

This drawing of a common hare was executed on four separate visits to the Milstein Hall of Mammals on the fourth floor. The biomechanics of this skeleton interested me, as well as the notion of hares as symbols of groundedness, humility, and moving through fear. Rabbits, being nocturnal, have come to signify in some cultures the moon as it dies every morning and is resurrected each evening. To Buddhists the hare is a symbol of self-sacrifice, to Christians a symbol of vigilance and the need to flee from sin. The rabbit has no weapons with which to defend itself, therefore representing trust and dependence on Christ's provision, protection, and mercy. The rabbit's burrow is a symbol of Christ's tomb.

The haunting music of Arvo Pärt has resonated with me a great deal in the past year, his quote "everything that is unimportant falls away" is from a description he wrote about a style he has called "tintinabuli": "Tintinnabulation is an area I sometimes wander into when I am searching for answers – in my life, my music, my work. In my dark hours, I have the certain feeling that everything outside this one thing has no meaning. The complex and many-faceted only confuses me, and I must search for unity. What is it, this one thing, and how do I find my way to it? Traces of this perfect thing appear in many guises – and everything that is unimportant falls away."

Noel Hennelly
E-mail: noel@bway.net