A special dog at Starbucks...

LISTENING TO ELECTION RHETORIC FROM SOUTH CAROLINA THIS MORNING, I went looking for a poem I had written a long time ago… I found it, less poem than prose, and what I had written was done in that time when I was talking to myself… eight stanzas of six lines each… the first stanza was Jerral number 0ne and the alternate stanzas were Jerral number two.  It was meant to be a conversation.  One of the joys of old age comes from looking back at things said or written a long time ago and wondering what was happening in the world or on the job that made the thoughts happen.  Today’s BLOG writing was done on Tuesday, February 27, 1900.

Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori

makes sense only if it can be established

that the country is a secure haven

for all people of every possible description

which makes it difficult to imagine

what kind of person could be a South African patriot.

Before smugness is carried too far here

perhaps it should be recalled

that not many years ago

it was impossible for a Black person

to ride anywhere in the bus but the back

in most places in America.

The country is more than actually what happens.

Looking behind what actually is

to what the vision is  

upon which the nation is founded

provides the motivation for patriotism

and America’s essential vision is honorable.

Explain that honor to a poor Black woman

living with five children in Abject Poverty, U.S.A.,

and see how much of the vision of America she enjoys.

Or check with the next gay citizen who has decided to live openly 

trying to keep sane and secure while competing

with others for advancement in any business but hairdressing.

But even for those deprived and abused citizens in America

the basic foundation of democracy promises

what it intends but cannot yet deliver

and won’t be able to provide

until enough good citizens know that it is the threat

from inside the country that must be met with determination.

It is then the mythical not the actual country 

the citizen must defend who accepts as truth

Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.

The sentiment sells easier to members

of organizations like the John Birch Society

or maybe even to the right wing of the Republican party.

Is there ever any condition so pure

that it can be defended for its present value

rather than for the hope it offers as an ideal

or an idea, whichever fits this page and thought better?

Without American democracy as a model

the world might sink to a lower level of dishonor.

Even democracy should be fine tuned constantly

to ensure that the keepers of the standards and laws

don’t use them for only a select group.

Even if that group is the large majority of citizens.

Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.

Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori. 

The San Diego Museum of Art has moved outside.  The sculptures of Rodin, Chadwick Miro, Zuniga and others that have been moved from the museum’s sculpture garden and the archives to the Plaza de Panama… a good move.  San Diego has become more important in the world of art. OOPS!  I almost forgot.  Someone dropped a rubber glove on the Laurel Street Bridge, walking away from the Park. There's a story there.  I don't know what it is, and I probably will never know.  The picture of the rubber glove is as close to the story as I am likely to get.

Remembering Coty

In 1990 when I was still working, and when we still had our Great Dog Coty

I'd take him to Dog Beach for a run on weekend mornings and during

holidays.  Saturday, December, 1990, was a holiday.

ALL ROADS LEAD AWAY TO DOG BEACH

In the San Diego River this morning the sea lion headed upstream.

I thought at first it was just another dog chasing a tennis ball,

but there is was surfacing and diving and surfacing again

apparenty unpreturbed by all the shouting people and barking dogs.

The sight of that beautiful creature on its way from somewhere

and just as obviously and purposefully on its way to somewhere else

made all the Gypsy blood in my body sing and the soles of my feet itch.

There I was just walking my dog around in great circles by the sea

when the highways of the world were leading directly to where I was

and all the roads and trails that go anywhere begin right there

on the parking lot at a place called Dog Beach in San Diego, California.

Saturday, December 29, 1990

Pear Blossoms, like leaves (and people) fall.  I've said before, and I say again that the pear blossoms this year have been different... The trees all bloomed out at the same time suddenly, full of the white blossoms.  Other years the blossoms have sneaked on the trees, made a show for a few hours, but this year the blossoms have dominated the landscape.  Our hill has been alive with the blossoms.  Balboa park has had a better showing of flowering pear trees/blossoms than I can remember in any other year. We've had another warm day...not as warm as yesterday and not as warm as predicted for tomorrow, but a warm day in the high seventies. Life is good... for some of us.

Balboa Park Trees...
The one in the middle is Palm...
I don't know what the others are...
but they have bark...

Just Pine

PALM BARK

NORTH SIDE OF THE SAN DIEGO RIVER from the Bike Path... I pedaled out to the ocean, stopped at the marina and felt glad I don't have a boat and after crossing to the other side of the river at Ocean Beach, in 80 degree weather, I felt very glad not to be in New Hampshire or anywhere in New England today where a blizzard is raging.  I'm also glad to be able to turn off the television coverage of the primary election action in New Hampshire.  Perhaps it is just my age, but I am feeling that this election year is the strangest of my lifetime... It's hard to figure out how THAT many people can be in favor of Donald Trump becoming the President of the U.S.A... then I remember that more than half of the people in the country aren't being asked what they think about Mr. Trump... and then I am brought back to the very strange Democratic race between Sanders and Carter and I realize those on "my side" of the political continuum must be as perplexed as I am by the issues.  Maybe when we are down to two people, maybe three, who actually will be nominated to run the race in summer and fall, the election year will seem more usual... Anyway... the bike ride was good today.  The river rolls on.

O.K., O.K., so I've fixed my attention onto the flowering pear trees in San Diego for more than a week... The change in the weather (climate change) or El Niño or who knows what, has caused these trees to bloom more wildly in San Diego than usual.  They were especially beautiful in all the phases of their development of blossoms this year.  It will be interesting to see if the trees are confused and will produce some pears this year.  I'll keep watch on our hill and report any other differences from other years.