Our arrival was initially inauspicious and our very survival dubious, but those species which had preceded us were, for the most part, innocuous, and it was soon apparent that, through cunning and cautious persistence, we might prevail. Although seasonal extremes occasionally proved challenging, careful planning and frugality were generally adequate to guarantee day by day survival and thus success. By the artful gathering and eventual domestication and propagation of both flora and fauna, our basic needs were soon sufficiently satisfied to afford a degree of security and increasingly plentiful periods of leisure time, allowing for the pursuit of what we will charitably call our more base desires. Our numbers soon swelled accordingly and exponentially, as did the threat we now posed to one another and the very environment which sustained us. Despite our initial admiration and appreciation for the bounty with which we were blessed, over time we became increasingly unappreciative, to the point of wanton destruction and deliberate and premeditated waste. As we achieved numbers which eventually outstripped our now fragile environments abilities to provide, those who were able enjoyed lavish excesses and profited without constraint as their abilities afforded. The less fortunate eventually succumbed to want, deprivation, and despair. This condition persisted and degenerated, ending as degenerations inevitably do. In the end, it was our very numbers that proved unsustainable. Our appetites and desires now insatiable, we eventually devoured the host that gave us suckle. We leave behind our sincere best wishes for any who follow, the little, leather-bound witness that provided our hope, and this fervent admonition: That any who follow consider well our easily anticipated plight, avoiding at all cost the poor judgment, callas unconcern, and total and blatant disregard for justice and propriety which, for the attentive ear, were the unmistakable harbingers of our doom. May God richly bless you, your desire be to serve, and your calling, that of benefactor to God’s creatures great and small.
May God in His mercy forgive us, & Farewell.
November 11th, in the year of our Lord, 2025
Shannon Thomas Casebeer
