Monday
High temperatures again today. For Duke's sake--mine, too--we went for a walk about 8AM. It was already mid-to-high seventies and muggy. It felt good to walk and to watch Duke.
He heels imperfectly: a smells distracts him and he drifts off; a car startles him and he jerks away; he enjoys himself so much that he wanders into my leg, nearly tripping me. My greatest challenge is to keep control of him should he sight another dog. Harmless to the females unless they growl or snap, he is aggressive toward males.
I can't help but think that he reacts that way for the same reasons some people do; insecurity and self-doubt. Buster, my previous boxer, behaved similarly. Mac, my first, didn't acknowledge another dog's presence--with these exceptions: 1) If the dog acted aggressively Mac reacted instantly and with great force; 2) He once marked the crate of a particularly pugnacious Rottweiler--while the dog was in it. On two occasions he marked men. Neither were likable individuals. Mac left no doubt of his opinion, and he did this with no change of expression.
Mac was a supremely confident and well-adjusted dog. Duke less so.
We stayed at home the rest of the day save for a trip to town to post cards and bills.
It is satisfying to be able to pay bills without worry. It has not always been so for me. I realize what a blessing it is and am thankful. The church is small and I was not paid a great deal. Even so my income is now reduced by nearly forty percent.
This is not a crisis. Most of my church salary I gave away. I was grateful to God that I was able to help others not so fortunate. Now I will not have so much to give. I will have to give wisely and not blindly.
There is no question that others have misused my generosity on occasion. It saddens me to know that, but I would not refuse help I was able to give.
My father had little money. We were poor after he became ill and not much more than that before. Still, sometimes to my mother's consternation, he helped anyone he could.
He left a bad situation at home in 1928. He was sixteen and on his own during the great depression. He took any odd job, rode rails, worked carnivals and sometimes panhandled. He told me that others had often been kind to him. One couple in particular paid for his hospitalization, room and board after he suffered from smoke inhalation fighting a forest fire in Oregon. They would take no payment in return except his promise to help someone else one day. He honored that. I have tried to do so, too.
It is odd that there was less violence and crime, and more kindness during the depression than today. How to explain that?
One theory is that, like Duke and Buster, people feel insecure and so they act out. Maybe so, but if that is the case why wasn't it worse during the depression? So many more lost jobs, homes, went hungry and were reduced to begging. How can one feel secure or maintain self respect in those conditions?
The explanation is sad and simple. The Great Depression produced untold hardships but none questioned that men were created beings rather than mere by-products of time and chance. There is great difference in believing you (and other's) have purpose and value versus believing everyone is an accident.
Again: A created being has inherent value. An accident is merely an accident and has none.
So many have heard for so long that all are accidents and have come to accept it without question. An accident can't value itself except in the most selfish of ways. An accident certainly can't or won't value others other than in the same way.
Each season, each person:
sun, moon, stars--these flowers!
Heaven's creation.
O flower don't fret;
unopened today--you are
tomorrow's blessing!
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