CROW STAFF OF “THE RAVEN REVIEW”
1 ARROW - True to his name, straight as an arrow. The kind of character you'd want as a friend. Goes straight to the point, doesn't stray, is fast, gets the job done. This is the raven known for remembering a face and not forgetting a kind deed. You do one kind thing to this raven, and he remembers you all his life. But the reverse is true if you trip up and do something nasty. He'll never forget it. And this guy doesn't know how to do things by degrees; it's all or nothing. "Straight as an arrow" means he doesn't know how to grade on a curve either.
2 EINSTEIN - The brain of the bunch. Altho' ravens are credited for being exceptionally brilliant among the feathered animals, Einstein tops all of them, is often thinking in concepts way farther what they could begin to fathom. Einstein's form of relaxation is to solve calculus equations in his head.
3 LEONARD - Probably the only one in the group with a "common" first name. Most normal animals are given names as adults to show what they're like, but the story goes that in Leonard's family, chicks are named at birth: boys being named Leonard, Lenny, or Len; and girls named Leonora, Lenora, or Lenore. Apparently, their raven forefather, was once owned by a poet named Poe who went crazy when his lover, Lenore, died, after whom the raven's family name their children. Nobody knows the reason why this got started. Creativity and imagination are golden eggs plentiful in Leonard's nest, but his biggest drawback is his impractical nature. He's full of problem solving ideas from every angle, but you've got to find his place of best productivity, or you're in trouble.
4 MIDNIGHT - The oldest, darkest, wisest, most courageous leader of the group.
He doesn't go skipping around shouting orders and changing his mind quickly but thinks through things deeply to see real needs and often stays up late or gets up early in the morning to examine things. But altho' he looks like a strong and take-command character, he's really lonely and longing for camaraderie. There's a deep scar he bears from being pried from bosom buddies which makes it difficult for him to really trust, to depend on others, to work in a group. Midnight often looks like a me-only show; but he's not, really; he just needs others to come to him; he doesn't know how to go out to them.
5 STEALTH (Sean) - This is the guy who's the silent ninja type, who quickly slips out and checks things out or slips a message to the enemy without being noticed. He may not be super-smart like Einstein or super-fast like Arrow or super-anything; but he just sees the most efficient way to do something, and does it without making a fuss about it. Doesn't get humor at all tho'; laughs three times at every joke: 1st when it's told, 2nd when it's explained, and 3rd about a year later in the middle of nowhere when he finally gets it.
(Stealth--Can you see him? It’s the crow way over on the left of the picture.
By the way, this is a very real photo; I didn’t cut & paste the 2 birds there! )
* CHANDRA - A Koriyama raven flew into the Iwatsuki Park and almost knocked Midnight's socks off (figuratively speaking, of course!). Chandra and Midnight were best friends in their youth. In the confusion of the 2011 earthquake; the ensuing flooding, and radiation, they had lost touch with each other; and Midnight had given up all hope of ever seeing Chandra again. Incidentally, Chandra means "moon" in Sanskrit. It was actually his dislike for the first name given him, Ravi, which means "sun" a name given many to encourage them to aspire to splendor. He preferred to reflect courage into someone else's heart and watch him achieve his best. The moonlight reflected into Midnight's heart was just the thing he lacked, and Chandra had a friend who genuinely needed and wanted him--the two were inseparable. Until the Quake came, and the confusion tore the two apart.
When Chandra and Midnight were together, it seemed they could do anything--and Midnight felt like it! But after the '11 Quake, without the glint of the moon, well, it didn't seem to make any sense. Why try?
One morning after Chandra came and the two talked, Midnight realized he'd just been playing it safe, and things would change radically now. If Chandra had been here the past few years, he would've been acting differently. How differently?
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Incidentally, these crows grow, change, do not stay static caricatures.
Perhaps the easiest to spot at the outset is Midnight. Chandra is called back to Koriyama. But Midnight doesn’t fall apart. And he remains a relaxed, open character even after Chandra leaves, does not revert to his old self, who would’ve pulled back inside himself. This can be seen most in his opening up channels of communication between the animals in the park instead of holding them to their boundaries; and allowing Leonard much more freedom, including doing the Raven Review linking up with Quasi the turtle. In the past, he probably would’ve kept heavy supervision over any endeavor Leonard may have thought to try, but now he’s pretty much letting the two have free rein. The same with Necktie, to Arrow’s chagrin, in this case.
This is another character that is changing big time. Necktie, who was virtually unheard of when the 5 previous characters were mentioned, is the younger brother of Arrow. The two brothers were captured and tormented along with their crow parents, who ended up being killed by their captors. Arrow managed to fly away, but Necktie did not and still bears a scar around his neck from the harrowing experience.
At the time of the first writing, Arrow was active, Necktie was the tame little brother. A few weeks ago, when visitors came to the park, Necktie recognized one of them from that harrowing chick nightmare, and he quickly sprang to life—now, one cannot chirp without knowing Necktie is alive. Arrow does not know what to do or how to help his brother.
Stealth used to be a very flat, immature, shallow character, whose only forte was his expertise at espionage. But his repeated experiences of watching people and understanding how life works made him more socially minded than he himself expected. He is even contemplating asking his nickname be changed from Stealth to Health!
Leonard, the creatively gifted bird of the group, as can be seen in human society, is usually the most impractical and unstable one also and may be the slowest to change. But give him real responsibility—not like the menial, custodial employ which he sloffed off onto Einstein—but one requiring mental effort, like the Review editorship, and somewhere, “somewhen”, he will prove himself. You can’t push this guy.
Einstein, you can’t push him either. But you don’t have to push him; he’s way ahead of you. And he’s probably changing in ways you can’t even see. When is the last time you sat down with him and he told you about why he thought it was important to be asymptotic in life views, and if he had only realized it, he would have done so for the past thirteen years, and he probably would’ve lived completely differently! See? His perspective’s been changing, and you didn’t even know it.
