One Patch of Grass

The somber tone of the last couple of postings is because I am a bit more somber these days. I recently lost an animal friend who was very dear to me, and anyone who says that cats can’t be warm and attentive and affectionate … well, they lack knowledge and experience, because in a way cats are like mirrors. If we come at them with kindness and interest it is reflected back manyfold in our direction.

“Well, they were spiteful and empty-headed and living with them was a struggle from dawn to dusk. I couldn’t bear their company any longer.”

“I think you’ll find the people in this village are much the same.” And that traveler continued on.

Later, another pilgrim came to where the monk was sitting along the road and asked the same question .

“What sort of people live in that village up ahead?”

“What sort of people live in the village you came from,” was the reply once again.

“They were the nicest folks you could ever want to meet. Always friendly and sociable, and if you needed help all you had to do was ask and several of them would step forward.”

“I think you’ll find the people in this village are much the same,” the monk said.

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The Grateful Dead song Ripple is an all-time favorite for me, ever since I first heard it on the soundtrack of the movie Mask. There are many cover versions out there, but I doubt there’s a better one than this. Two women respecting the music and making it their own. I was completely charmed.

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No Kings 3 is just three days away. There will be massive displays of peaceful protest and solidarity in the great cities around the US, and we will have our own smaller version here in Paradise. Each day Cluck does something ugly that gives more people the motivation they need to get up and out on the street.

There will come a day when the only people who will stand with him will be a handful of the MAGA cult members. They are a nasty bunch, and it is ultimately not possible to keep a group like MAGA together that is completely based on spitefulness, fear, and hate.

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The snake cartoon above says it all for me. Whatever the Republican Party once was it has ceased to be anything but a gaggle of Cluck enablers and lickspittles. Here in Paradise the politicians from that party are far too often of the dunderhead variety. Last summer a brand-new Republican county commissioner was successfully recalled for rampant stupidity and boorishness of the first order.

When this inept national regime falls, I could care less what happens to the present-day GOP. I would, however, very much like a respectable and honorable conservative political party to arise. Although the Democrats seem to finally be realizing that they are standing waist-deep in a manure lagoon that they helped fill because of fecklessness in their role as an opposition party, they seem to require a worthy opponent to keep them on their toes.

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The daily news is so rife with horrible that it is easy to get off to a bad start in the morning, when you are being served with what seems an endless procession of humans behaving badly. But if I walk out the door and talk to people about their lives, I find a different principle at work. One that is so very powerful and enduring. Love, actually.

There are parents sacrificing for their children and children sacrificing for their parents. There are people working selflessly for peace, the environment, and in the struggles against disease and ignorance. There are friends helping their comrades across streets when their strength is failing. People who leave anonymous gifts at the doors of the less fortunate. The courage, compassion, and determination of the people of Minneapolis who refused to yield their freezing streets to the thugs of ICE.

When I grow up, I want to be like those folks.

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This one is for RLC

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