Read Will Rogers column 88 years ago: May 5, 1935
Johnny Rossendale has spent the last four years on the seas, away from the titled family he despises. But now he must turn his sailing cutter, the Sunflower, around and sail to Devon, where his mother lies dying. When Johnny makes landfall, though, he finds that his return is eagerly anticipated by some very sinister foes.
I have quoted the closing paragraph of an blog posting that I recommend as a must read.
How we as a society can address this problem is a good question. We’ve lost two generations (literally as well as figuratively) and are on a trajectory to lose a third. Our own selfishness, stupidity, and hubris have brought us to this point; and they aren’t going to be solved simply by exchanging one political despot for another. Our society’s problem is a spiritual one. It’s going to take acknowledging the errors of the past 30 or so years and repudiating them on a wholesale basis. Somehow, I have my doubts that we have it left in us to do that.— The Road To Oblivion by The Night Wind
This quote is from a good blog posting Our Werewolves Ourselves by John Michael Greer. A recommended read.
This is a bleak and bitter time to be a young man in America. Outside the narrowing circles of the well-to-do, boys and girls alike face a world in which every option pushed on them by their society—employment, college education, you name it—is a mug’s game rigged to make others rich at their expense. Boys, however, face the additional burden that maleness has been pathologized in our schools, so that boys are systematically punished and penalized for the crime of not acting more like girls. Those boys who can’t handle the demands for passivity and obedience imposed on them can count on being drugged into submission if they aren’t simply arrested and put into what has been usefully labeled the school-to-prison pipeline.… The military used to be the great escape hatch for young men who couldn’t find a place in civil society, but that door’s been slammed shut in recent years as Pentagon bureaucrats push an increasingly strident woke ideology on the rank and file, and the benefits of military service have become increasingly limited when they’re not wholly imaginary… Rejected by the cultural mainstream, and as often as not condemned by woke ideologues as personally guilty of every wrong ever inflicted by their ancestors, a great many young men have been driven to the fringes of our society.
Just a question today, does Erik seem to look for or miss Patches,or just go on as if nothing has changed?I hope you’re doing well with everything,-Mary
Erik has not shown any signs that he misses Patches. I think he knew she was dying from the day that I adopted him. The worse her health became the more protective of her he became.
The only behavior change I have noticed is that he is not as frantic for attention as he was when Patches was still with us. He no longer has any competition for attention so he has mellowed.
Will continue this conversation on your most recent post ( where you are more likely to see it) -Mary
I’ll see your Comment in whatever post you select; the most recent is NOT more likely. However, my replies are always ‘attached’ to your Comment.
Hi Ed,
Finally I feel ready
to respond Erik’s
feeling protective.
When my husband was alive he had a permit to carry a
concealed weapon
and was always armed,so our dogs and I felt no need to protect ourselves or each other.
Then my husband died and I was
inconsolable.As I sat in a chair crying my male dog did something he had never done before.Rather than try to touch me as if trying to console me he sat in front of me in “the guard dog position”. It’s was as if he sensed something hurtful was close by and wanted to make sure it could not reach me . I think animals know more than most people give them credit for. I did feel “safer” and better because that dog was taking on my husband’s “duty” of making me feel safe and secure at a time when I felt more vulnerable than I ever had before.
I hope you and Erik are doing well and enjoying life,
-Mary
Thank you for that comment Mary.
Yes, Erik and I are both doing well and I think we are both enjoying life. I am enjoying this summer much more than last summer and I think Erik would agree. It has been HOT for this elevation however; hot days in the summer seem to be following me.
You might try getting a light plastic small pool or tub to fill with cold water for Erik to stand in,when a dog’s feet are wet and cool it helps their whole body to cool off.You could soak your bare feet in it too.Another way to stay cooler when it’s hot out is to put an outfit of clothing into cold water, wring it out and wear it, cool wet clothes can really help us not feel so hot …
As always, it’s nice to hear from you, Mary
No need; Erik has the cool floor in Desperado. The coach is very poorly insulated so when the night time temperatures drop down to into the 40s that is what the floor temperature becomes. I would get down there with him but it is hell for me to get back up. HA