Living Life Every Day

Blogger Dean Barnett has died of Cystic Fibrosis. He was one of those people who made the most of life even in the face of tremendous challenges. He wasn't shy about taking on an intellectual argument. But he also wrote a tribute to a Lefty blogger with whom he deeply disagreed when the latter died last year, also at the age of 41. Dean Barnett looked at his challenges head-on and moved forward in a realistic way, appreciating both the big and the little things which came his way each day.

I've met two other people recently who strike me in the same way. David and I talked recently with a local pastor who had a near-death experience in a diving accident which made him a paraplegic and an instant Christian. He is currently running for City Council, with considerable help from his brother, other relatives and friends.

I also met one of the Hoggard's neighbors, a woman who has severe arthritis of a rare form which is fusing her spine and deforming her body. Her hips were both replaced when she was relatively young. She and her husband adopted a little girl from overseas a few years ago. The girl, now 8, is the focus of a lot of love. Her mom also keeps busy volunteering for the Catholic church. She speaks with great enthusiasm about her life, even expressing gratitude for her disability.

A former neighbor of ours, Mrs. Rambo the "garden lady", similarly made me feel good just being around her. She also had debilitating pain in her spine. She and her husband had lost their only daughter when she was just a girl. I lost track of her when she went into a nursing home near an "adopted" - unrelated - niece in Tulare. She fought the move as long as she could. Her little house is just not the same without all the exuberant flowers she tended there. She made a difference in my life. She radiated both gratitude and a kind of determination to live a fulfilling life. She "thrilled" at the sound of a rooster crowing, as it reminded her of ranch life. She took joy in every flower in her garden and every person she knew.

Dennis Prager interviewed his mother for the first time on his Happiness Hour last Friday. It was her birthday. She and her husband look forward to each day, ignoring the aches and pains of age. She provided some fascinating insights into life in the past as an Orthodox Jew in New York City. Things have really changed. She thinks she was "born happy", though she has had several challenges - a deaf mother and the murder of a grandfather, for example.

Dennis' old friend Father Gregory called to speak with her. His call reminded me of the old days when Dennis moderated the "Religion on the Line" radio program in Los Angeles. The clergy got along with each other remarkably well, laughed together and supported each other despite their theological differences. There was a core set of values which they shared and which they helped each other express to listeners. They also seemed to be a notably grateful group of people.

Wretchard put a note of gratitude and comfort into his post on Dean Barnett's death. It could apply to many other people we cherish and are grateful for, and probably even to to my difficulty in throwing away old things which have meaning to me:

"Sometimes relatives put off cleaning out the room or packing up the effects of the deceased because it almost seems as if they’ll come back. Just you wait.

The time to clean up comes when we realize that even memory is not necessary for love. Nothing is futile. Just you wait."

Remembering Tony Hillerman

There will never be another Tony Hillerman novel. My friend Keira introduced me to his books when she lived in Arizona, and I bought my first one in the Phoenix airport, which is decorated with Native American iconography. I just re-read "A Thief of Time" not too long ago. I really liked the insights Hillerman gave into the Southwest Native American cultures and the struggles between those cultures and the modern world.

I understood Navahos, in particular, a lot better because of his novels. I understood better why all the Navajos I knew growing up seemed so shy. And why missionaries on the Navajo reservation were called on so often to dress bodies for burial. The traditional Navajo ideas about the afterlife are very dark, and Navajos concentrate on the beauty of this life.

I also appreciate the way Hillerman made his characters into real people. Especially the Navajo Police officers whose lives we followed through several novels. New readers might want to start with the earliest books and move forward to the more complex later novels.

Several years ago, Mom, Marianne, Little David and I went on vacation through some of the territory in which Hillerman set his novels. We saw Indian ruins and canyons which were familiar when I read the books. Navajo names we read on the rodeo schedules were the same as those in his books. We battled little blackflies at Four Corners. I remember Mexican Hat and the trading post there. The motel owner told us the story of the artesian well under the river which was accidentally drilled while speculators were looking for something else (and which gave us water pressure in the little trailer-motel where we stayed).

I could relate to Officer Chee's surprise in one novel that his underwear didn't dry overnight in Los Angeles. Our clothes dried in minutes in Mexican Hat when we draped them over the caesalpinia bushes, one of the plants which sustains hummingbirds in the hottest, most arid parts of the Southwest. As an aside, once when I was visiting Keira and Wally in Phoenix, we revived a fledgling hummingbird which had ventured out on an extremely hot day and had fainted on the asphalt. Apple juice brought it back to life.

I once read in a Land's End catalog a Hillerman short story about a "skinwalker" (murderous Najavo witch) in the form of a wolf chasing a trucker on the highway to Mexican Hat, and haven't felt quite the same about that road since. His novels bring back memories of that trip and others - including the family campout at Capitol Reef.

A Disheartening Election Season

It's been a strange, depressing political season. Glenn Reynolds describes the campaign at this point in a nutshell, with a little help from Jeff Goldstein - the stay-at-home dad leftist academics love to hate. I'll be voting for McCain's rolodex this year - or maybe against Obama's rolodex - leftist academics, liberal jurists, Hollywood, competing activist groups, etc.

I know it's not ideal to vote in terms of avoiding negatives. At least McCain has a record of opposing corruption - as does Palin. And as Jennifer Rubin points out, Obama's one constant (in political terms) is that he has never actively opposed political corruption, despite getting his political start in one of the areas of the country most famous for political corruption.

One problem is that McCain is running on Obama's turf when it comes to the economy, which is the hot-button issue right now. America may be about to elect its most left-wing national government ever. Including strengthening the Pelosi-Reid congress. Ironic that a recent poll showed that 56% of voters would throw out the entire congress if they could.

George Will reminds us that among the first orders of business of an Obama-Pelosi-Reid government would be solidifying their power by revoking the secret ballot in union elections (giving union activists great power to intimidate) and re-instating the Fairness Doctrine. This would drive Talk Radio off the public airwaves because it would not be economically feasible for stations to try to "balance" the views presented there. On the other hand, Rush Limbaugh might be broadcast on Pacifica Radio and NPR, which would be a culture shock to the Left. And we might see a requirement that "The View" be balanced by a show featuring a bunch of conservative men with a token liberal. An amusing thought.

I think forcing Talk Radio out of business could make the Right nuttier, given their existing exasperation at the brazen bias of the Mainstream media - pointed out here by former leftist radical Roger L. Simon. The loss of Talk Radio could drive the Right onto the internet, where angry groups tend to reinforce each other's feelings. This would be unfortunate. Talk Radio is out in the open where it can be monitored and challenged easily. And conservative talk shows take challenging callers (even if they are not treated fairly in every instance). I like Dennis Prager for his emphasis on reason over emotion in politics. Many other talk show hosts are also heavily into thought and fact over feelings.

The Angry Right is gearing up to act like the Angry Left has for the last 8 years: Not a good thing. Well, maybe not quite like the Angry Left.

Anger and conspiracy theories from the right would be a big mistake. The right is judged by a different standard than the left. I think an emphasis on reason, working to promote better candidates and working to limit government expansion are more useful, if less immediate, ways to limit the potential damage which could be done by a "therapeutic president" who seems to be such a nice guy and who is, by all accounts, a wonderful father.

As one of the Instapundit correspondents (in the Angry Right link above) said, "I plan to take a different tack. . . , should Obama win the election. I think conserv/atarians should "perceive the Obama Administration as damage, and route around it."

That is, fight against Government power, without focusing on who is weilding it, and rebuild our non-Governmental institutions to get done the things that need to get done."

Doggie news

Dogs all have their own personalities. Our friend Brandy visited us recently, and our little dog Lucky played coy with her, shy about giving her a kiss. Troy the Giant Dog is a kissing fiend, so maybe he can give Lucky some lessons. Lucky might be able to give Troy some lessons on looking cute. Troy tries, but he's so big that the puppy act just doesn't seem quite right. Neither Troy nor Lucky understand "fetch" as well as Maggie does. Lucky chases a tossed toy, but then hangs onto it. Troy chases a tossed toy, but usually doesn't even try to pick it up. It's sort of like he doesn't want to hurt anyone's feelings by being possessive. I don't completely understand dog behavior, but there seem to be some breed characteristics in propensities to retrieve, herd, etc. At present, we don't have a dog who scolds us like little Sula did.

David finished the new doghouse for our geriatric dogs, Sparky and Dottie, before the rain. It's by the garage door. The little fluffy puppy next door seems to feel threatened by their proximity. He was left alone this weekend, in the neighbor's garage, with the side door open. He's been barking constantly. I tried "group dog biscuit" therapy to increase his comfort level - feeding him biscuits at the same time the other dogs got theirs. Seemed to help.

Troy the Giant Dog and Maggie the Warrior Queen have been chewing on the wooden gate south of the house in an apparent slow escape attempt. Troy's nose is frequently seen under the gate from the other side, checking out the action in the front yard. Time for reinforcement.

A couple of days ago little Lucky found a bottle of cooking oil which I had left on the kitchen floor in a grocery bag (temporarily, I thought). He dragged it under the dining table, chewed off the cap, punctured the seal and began licking the oil. It didn't show in the carpet, but it was there, spreading deep through the fibers. He then dragged the bottle into the bedroom and started licking again. The bottle was missing about three cups of oil, and we weren't sure how much went into Lucky. So we watched him carefully and took him outside often overnight. He's O.K.

Resolved: don't put grocery bags on the floor even for a few minutes when there's a dog around.

In celebrity dog news: I'm shocked at this fraud. She's not a pitbull, and she's not even wearing lipstick. Thank goodness.