Hard rain today. Jan suggested that today be “Pajama Day” which I thought was a grand Idea, but seeing as how I have gotten so much sleep in the last twenty four hours I thought the least I could do was get up and around. Which I did. I haven’t seen the little island out front yet today because we are still living in the fog. But I’m feeling good with my head on straight and a good hot cup of English Breakfast Tea in front of my fake electric fire.
Dot is mad at me because I have been assigned the task of taking her stitches out. Jan was convinced we didn’t need to do anesthetic again and she could coax the stitches out when Dot was sleepy and relaxed. Unfortunately Dot is never that relaxed. She is very independently minded, and is almost as sensitive to being bossed around as Jan is about the use of narcotics on pets. So after hours of cooing and sneaking up on the stitches to no avail, Jan went up to her office shed this morning leaving me a head lamp and scissors telling me to “get the stitches out. After a rather unpleasant fifteen minutes of using the leash, and a great big pillow wedging ourselves into there far end of the couch I got half the stitches out on her face. Rather than trying to reposition her to break sable to reach the last ones I let her go and she bolted to the door, where she insisted on going to visit Jan. Dot refused to look at me the rest of the afternoon. Jan had to kick her out of her office because Dot was “taking care of the recycling bin” by dancing and eating all of the contents while Jan was on a live Zoom meeting. I was on a call with Heather Lende discussing our upcoming Zoom thing when Jan sent me a text saying “Come Get DOT! I’m in a meeting and she is throwing herself at the outside door.”
Jan’s writing shack.
When I got to Jan’s shack Dot was among the missing. I called and called. She usually waits in the car. We leave the door open now because it is her favorite place to hang out. I called but no Dot. So I went inside and made myself some lunch. Fruit salad and a casadia. Cooking almost anything almost always brings her in. And sure enough by the time I got back outside there she was, soaking wet and ready to share my tortilla and melted cheese. I made her another one to have with some kibble and she looked at me with sincere appreciation.
Heather called to see how I was doing. There was some rumor that I had cancer because of my facebook post that I had had an “infusion”. No” I reassured her,” I’m just nutty.” She knew that already. I asked her how she was doing and she admitted that she was a bit down from watching the Republican Convention and because the Haines police apparently had shot several bears in her neighborhood. Lots of shooting but little or no reliable information rereleased by the police. Which sounds like something to clog the gossip pipe for a good long while. Sounds like Heather will not be looking at the police chief for a while. Maybe he should make her a tortillas and cheese. It works for me.
Among the many unpopular opinions I hold to is this one: much of the frustration and anger we feel during this election cycle is a form of depression. Our political opinions don’t really mean much nor are they very convincing to anyone who doesn’t agree with us already. We aren’t convincing anyone of anything no matter how hard we try. Partly because political rhetoric is turned on its head. We aren’t drawn to positive ideas to change position. We are drawn to negative feelings about who we hate. Pro Trump folks, pretty much just hate liberals. Like Dot they don’t want to look at them because they have suffered a painful insult to their dignity. Likewise, Anti Trump people quite frankly just hate Trump, because he insults their sense of intelligence and their whole sense of the way things should be. No good argument will change a race that’s based on negative feelings. We just don’t want to look at our enemies, because their existence simply makes us depressed. We sense that and the other side reads our kindness as condescending acts of superiority. We don’t reach each other.
I don’t know….. I’m thinking back to my challenge last week. I’m still giving presents, I’m trying to show genuine love to people that I may have forgotten. I don’t know if it could work in convincing a voter to switch side. I honestly don’t know. I think what turns Dot around to look at me, is not just the gesture of the toasted cheese tortilla, but the fact that I consistently show her kindness when I can. Heather does this with the people who oppose her, she is a genuinely kind and patient person. But it aint easy. Not every day, particularly when somedays they are out there shooting “problem” bears, when the problem, might not be, just might not be with the bears.
But all we can do is stick to our original and most useful guns.
More summer rainfall,
throw a ball in the wet grass,
and no one wants it.
jhs
Here is a recording of me reading from Just Breathe Normally by Peggy Shumaker. One of Alaska’s former Writer Laureates and a important leader in the Arts and Letters in our state. A great poet, professor and memoirist.
