Searching For- Zootopia In- -

the mess. In the fear. In the fox and the bunny and the subway and the mirror.

That is the first hyphen. (the ideal) in (the reality of) a city that looks like Zootopia. The Real Predator Divide I started “searching for Zootopia” on a Tuesday afternoon on the subway. A man was shouting. Not at anyone, just at . His eyes were wide. His knuckles were white. Across the aisle, a woman clutched her purse. A teenager pulled out his phone to record. No one intervened. Searching for- zootopia in-

How many of us are doing that right now? a career that doesn't fit? In a relationship that feels like a performance? In a body we’ve been taught to hate? the mess

“You can't be a bunny,” the world tells Judy. “You can't be a fox,” it tells Nick. “You can't be a artist, a mother, a leader, a man who cries, a woman who yells.” That is the first hyphen

I’ve been thinking about the hyphen.

We are living in Bellwether’s world right now. Every news cycle, every algorithm, every “us vs. them” headline is a dose of night howler serum. The predator is the immigrant. The prey is the native. The predator is the liberal. The prey is the conservative. Flip the script. It never ends.

We were all prey that day. And he was the predator.