We orthodox pagans hold the members of the phyllum arthropoda in the highest esteem. Their external skeletons are wondrously protective and they are fabulously adapted to extraordinarily beautiful decorations. Their many legs are also an amazement. Their motivation and their agility are beyond compare. Their capacity for survival is extraordinarily impressive. For 300 million years they have prospered under all conditions.
We human beings, after a mere 2-1/2 million years, are having difficulty maintaining a livable environment for ourselves; consequently, the declared totem animal of the First National Church of the Exquisite Panic, Inc. -- the animal whom we choose to emulate in its fabulously creative flirtation with life -- is one of the most gifted of this gifted phyllum: the cockroach!
The cockroach, unlike the traditional totem animals -- e.g., the lion, the tiger, and the bear -- is in no danger whatever of extinction.
