While I don’t want to make too much of it, the above is derived from a line that is often said around this time of year in relation to people getting puppies for a certain late December holiday. (And yet, the positive valences of canids in relation to warriors is a very appropriate and commonplace comparison that is thousands of years old and attested in many cultures…)
Over at Anomalous Thracian’s blog, a new entry talks about honoring various kinds of warrior, including and especially military veterans. I’d urge you to read it if you have any interest in this matter; and I’d urge you to read it even more if you have no interest in these topics whatsoever.
Also on Pagan Square’s blogs, I found this entry on foxes and hedgehogs, i.e. those who are eclectic-minded and those who are not, which is highly intriguing…the question of syncretism, of course, springs to mind (like a fox!–they spring, don’t they?!?), but it’s ever fascinating to me that the term “syncretism” is still not one in very common usage within modern paganism generally. Hmm.
I have a huge pile of grading to do (some of it from a class of current military service personnel and veterans), so I will likely not have much time to update over the next few days, but I hope to return to it at least by next Monday, when Saturnalia begins. Until then…! 
I think that the thing about that fox/hedgehog comparison is that it seems like a false dichotomy to me. It doesn’t, for instance, cover people who accept that their knowledge is inherently limited, and choose to spend their efforts toward something particular (hedgehog) while acknowledging a fox-like greater universe, ineffable to any one person.
The Anomalous Thracian speaks quite eloquently. Thank you for pointing that article out.
By: Faoladh on December 13, 2012
at 11:31 pm