McGee

I have a pet. Her name is McGee. I call her my spiritual advisor because she is unconditionally loving and loyal.

Pets have been around for such a long time the dictionary lists the origin of the word as unknown.

History tells us a working relationship was formed with early man and the wolves that lived around man's camps. Gradually the animals evolved until certain ones became tame and were then regarded as settlement dependents and helped in hunting and guarding duties.

Selective breeding followed domestication and we find in ancient carvings and painting that giant mastiffs were used in lion hunting in Mesopotamia. Egyptian tomb paintings depict greyhound-like dogs and short-legged terriers like those of today.

Even the Bible has two references of keeping pets. In Samuel, Nathan speaks of a ewe lamb brought up in a poor farmers family. In Mark, chapter 7, verse 28, he speaks of a foreign women telling of her little pet dogs that sat under the table.

For years now many people have been trying to convince the medical community that writing a prescription for a companion animal has value.

Many studies have been conducted concluding that pets are beneficial. One researcher determined that pets can help lower a person's blood pressure and improve the chances of survival of heart disease patients. Another report indicated that pets helped significantly with disoriented or withdrawn people in nursing homes or retirement communities.

The goal of those who believe in the pet therapy for some human aliments is to convince doctors to prescribe pets where they can and to get the government to allow pets into nursing homes. In many areas that is happening.

Glacier's Eye

Glacier’s Eye
©2017 Rolland G. Smith

Within the blue of glacier’s eyes
Are chronicles of climate’s storm.
So too, the tears of nature’s cries
That mark the passage of the norm.

As we descend, or climb to view
We learn the eyes may close some day.
Perhaps the science of the few
Will be the sound of man’s mayday.

There’s grace within the water lock
As waves are held in pantomime.
It’s nature’s art, and melting frock
To say we’re running out of time.

Driving Across America

I mentioned a couple of days ago that I have been traveling. I did a road trip. New York to California and back. My companion along the way was my spiritual advisor, McGee, a nine-pound bundle of loyalty and love who traveled like a seasoned itinerant.

I’ve had some inquiries as to why my posts were silent for the holiday weeks, and now you know the reason.

Driving across America is always a unique experience. I’ve done it several times, and each time it's a wondrous experience. I’ve driven through many countries, and the drive felt like I was in one place.

In the United States both the terrain and regional cultures make you think you are in a different country. Sometimes same language accents contribute to the sense of an alien place. Sometimes it’s the divergent terrain or climate. Driving from the cold to warmth, from winter flora to flower vegetation, from prairie flat to majestic mountains, and from snow to desert in a single day creates the illusion of different nations.

What is unique about the American driving experience compared to many other countries and regions, is that you can drive over three-thousand miles and never be stopped and questioned unless you are breaking some law.

Observations:

Big truck drivers come in four categories. Aggressive, passive, rude and pleasant.
America’s commerce is moved by trucks.
Nobody obeys the speed limit.
The roads South and West are better maintained than in the North and East.
There is no fresh seafood in middle America.
It’s better to leave early when driving West.
It’s better to leave later when driving East.
A second driver would be nice. Very nice
Dogs are unaware of time changes. They go by a body-clock.
McDonald’s tastes the same everywhere.
Parents don’t control their kids in restaurants.
Phone and tablet technology is ubiquitous.
Hampton Inn’s have the same bed spread nationally.
It does rain in the desert, and it’s beautiful.

To Be Or Not To Be

To Be Or Not To Be

©2017 Rolland G. Smith

Beyond the frame of where I live

There is another place to be.

It’s just before where we forgive

And passed the space we cannot see.

We all innately know the truth

That love is what we really are.

Just look within to see the proof

And know the ego’s gone too far.

So what’s the path to get on back

To where God’s bliss is comforting?

Trust the sails of spirit’s tack;

The winds of love are everything.

Vermont

I have been traveling, but I am back now with some observations on my travels across the country, but first something I read about in the Northeast.

Rutland, Vermont is a lot like many communities in America. The mayor there has agreed to resettle 100 Syrian refugees in the area. Some members of the community are upset that they had no part in the mayor’s decision and don’t want to “foot the bill” for the arriving refugees.

That’s the “crux” isn’t it?

It’s always, “Who’s going to pay for it.” “Not from my pocket.” “Let somebody else pay for it.” “Why should my family coffers suffer for somebody I don’t know, especially a foreigner, who may not believe the way I do.”

I am a steady and valid fan of Vermont. I have a good friend’s there. I like their community participation in local government, schools and social services. The rest of America should take notice and participate similarly. Vermonters are solid citizens of the republic and noble descendants of our democracy.

But where does refugee acceptance stop or start?

We either embrace into our democracy all refugees to refuel our republic, as our ancestors did, or we die on the vine of retribution because we fear the “other.” Emma Lazarus put it this way in her sonnet that emblazons the State of Liberty: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…”

Congress, Trump, Vermont and the rest of America, who see 2017 and beyond through the vail of fear and unknowing, must make the choice to be the America of original grace and embrace the acceptance of difference or change us into something else.