Routines and Surprises

            Most days I take my dog for a walk up through the local park.  The whole walk is close to two miles.  I meet interesting people from time to time and a few regulars here and there.  I am a friendly person and appreciate friendliness in others.  I am intolerant of people who have their dogs off leash, as if the park is their own backyard.  I will say something to those people about how it is important for the comfort of all of us that your dog be on a leash.  My most amusing encounter was the time a man's large dog came running for my golden retriever.  I wasn't sure if we were to be lunch or all would go well.  The man chased his dog yelling, "Hunter, come, Hunter, come."  Hunter's point of focus was my dog.  When Hunter arrived he sniffed around and satisfied, moved on, his owner running behind him yelling, "Hunter, come!"  When he passed I said, "That's why we have leashes”. His reply, "I don't need a leash." 

 I chuckled at that for a bit and, apparently, am still.  Then there have been the encounters where the owner of the leashed dog says, "Oh, he's friendly," and I allow my dog Cali, who loves people and dogs, to greet the other dog.  When the other dog snarls and barks and I pull Cali away, I say, "I guess not too friendly."

Today I started out on my walk and was stopped by my neighbor and we stood and talked for ten minutes or so just catching up.  Pleasant chat.  I continued on to the park.  As Cali and I reached the baseball field of the park and we walked across like we usually do, a dog came bounding towards us dragging a leash.  I stopped.  I noticed  the dog was a puppy.  Behind her came a man running and calling her name.  Behind him  three young girls also running and calling her name headed towards us.  The man, obviously a body builder, who wore a sleeveless Superman shirt that displayed not only arm but chest muscles, was quite apologetic as he untangled his puppy from my dog's leash.  He took the puppy away and the young girls arrived to ask to pet my dog. 

 As the man took down a soccer net near the other end of the field, the puppy escaped again and joined us.  Two of the the girls talked about how my dog looked just like theirs.  The other girl, the owner of the 4 month old lab puppy, talked about her other dogs at home.  We talked about dogs in general and our puppies in particular as Cali received a lot of love from the young girls. They were very sweet and friendly.  After several minutes, I told them to have a good day, they responded in kind.  Cali and I continued our walk.  

As we did, I thought about what a nice encounter with the girls we had.  Such positive energy between the girls and me and the dogs.  I thought about missing working with kids and how uplifting they are.  Such a random encounter made my day.  In all of the negative news and serious situations in this world, much of it brought on by poor leadership, this little piece of Americana gives me hope for the future.  Children are our future.  We must work to leave them a world that bends towards positivity, that preserves the natural world, that points to all that human beings have in common...like talking about pets in the middle of a baseball field on a random Saturday morning.

                                                                                                         

Let There Be Light

       I made it through the 1960's without being stoned or drunk.  In fact, I've made it to 2018 in the same condition.  I am not a fan of recreational drinking nor pot smoking.  Fortunately I am a mostly optimistic person who believes in feeling the feelings I'm having and enjoying life as best I can each day.  I'm not into judgy-preachy as to what I believe you should do, although I admit I do wonder why people feel a need to alter their reality with pot and drink, when there are other ways of escape that are less invasive.  If you're  reading a book, for example, or watching a movie, or taking a hike, or engaging in conversation with friends, you  can stop, halt, change direction of how you are  interacting with the world.  If you're drunk or high, you are drunk or high until you are not, until your buzz fades.  The buzz controls.    I recognize some people like that aspect of drinking and toking, and truly, not trying to be judgy-preachy here, just wondering.
     All of the above being said, I also think that if you want to drink or smoke pot and are of legal age to make such a decision, and are doing so in a responsible manner (not driving under the influence, for example), then no government should restrain you.  The act of the drinking or the toking must be outside of the law, as is the purchase of the means to drink or toke.  To prohibit drinking or smoking pot by law and concurrently prohibiting the sale, is to create an underground market for sale of these commodities.  The government then requires itself to ferret out the players in the underground market of its own creation! How does this make sense, or lead to the political idea that government should be minimally involved ?  Government in this way creates the problem to solve the problem.  What?
     Several sovereign states of the United States, by free electoral process guaranteed by the constitution, have declared that the sale of marijuana, like alcohol, is legal.  Not only the sale and making of each, but the using of each is also legal,  all subject to certain conditions.  It's up to the states to determine the laws surround the legal use. 
     In the past couple of days the Attorney General of the United States has summarily decided that the states don't have that right.  Why?  Because he doesn't believe in smoking marijuana.  This is not a good enough reason.  We are talking states rights, individual freedoms, a couple of concepts that the AG should be upholding in his capacity as AG.  But he speaks instead as an individual on a mission to uphold his belief that there is some moral depravity in smoking marijuana.  There is a large body of evidence that informs how the medical use of marijuana is helpful in and of itself. No morally deprave judgment in the evidence.  The AG has no such problem with guns.  He upholds guns rights, even though mass shootings have occurred with too regular frequencies in the recent past.  He picks and chooses the rights he wants to uphold.  He is misguided and wrongheaded in confusing his personal beliefs with the rights of others. 
     There is so much work to be done in this world to further justice in race relations, peace between nations, the empowerment of women, minorities, marginalized citizens, homelessness, to name some areas.  Focus, AG, on those areas.  You are the head of the JUSTICE Department, not the prohibition police.  Allow law enforcement to help with these crimes that exist, rather than trumping up new areas for overworked, overstretched police departments to change their focus.  Keep your personal beliefs, and politics, out of the quest for unification, for justice.  Stop the divisiveness. 
    Whether by jest or in an attempt to help me through a rough spot I was in over the holidays, my son-in-law wondered what I would be like if I got drunk.  I told him we'd never know, because likely I would not get drunk if I haven't done so by the time I'm 70.  Still, I'll keep that option open.  Know that whether I do or not, my beliefs will not impinge upon your right to drink or smoke pot.  Do you.  I'll do me.  But let's keep the government out of it!

Bridges

     Concrete paths and guard rails guiding to the next covered bridge.  Many boundaries to contain the traveler on the journey. The known.  Under the concrete, the solid, water flows.  The fluid. The unknown.  Beyond the bridge greenery, hope.  All part of the picture.  All part of life. 
     Boundaries are necessary.  They protect us, guide us, check us, remind us that freedom cohabits with boundaries, as do the unknown and the known.  Or what we think we know, which is the best we are able to at any given time.
     Covered bridges offer protection to the elements when traversing water.  They themselves provide boundaries, even without the concrete paths, without the guard rails.  Covered bridges are for the roughest part of the journey, when the water is deepest, or treacherous, or merely impedes the safety of the journey.  The path from here to there pauses now and again in the covered bridge of my mind.