--I HAVE NO INTEREST IN CORNERING THE MARKET ON SADNESS

 

…It’s hard to overstate how relentless and massive the fireworks are on the lake the night of July 4^th.  It’s shock and awe, very much like warfare.  Cannons going off, kites of bright lights shimmering, smoke genies wafting away.  It’s difficult not to appreciate it, but I like fireworks only slightly more than I like guns.  And while my dog is fine with them, I know most animals are terrified by fireworks.  I guess if you want to spend $3,000 blowing things up, that’s your prerogative.  I just don’t get why people buy the type that only makes a terrific booming sound that has me jerking every time.  What’s the point of that?  One house across the lake must have set off over fifty of them.

What was nice was the boat parade where every vessel has a flag and they make the loop waving and cheering.  This year was the most boats I’ve ever seen.

Anyway, Happy belated Independence Day to you.  I hope it was terrific.

…If you live on a lake, you have to get used to spiders.  Usually it’s mid-August where the pesky buggers show up everywhere.  For the last two days a very spry and very fast moving black spider, smaller than an eraser head, has been roaming my desk.  I just tried to catch him, but he must have known and scooted under my screen stand before I had the chance.

…Yesterday, running on The Centennial Trail, I saw lots of snakes, most of them dead.  Today I only saw butterflies.  I think that’s a good sign.  On the way back, there two of the smallest and cutest does standing stock still in the middle of Storm Lake Road, me on one side, another car on the opposite side.  They looked sort of confused, but not scared.  After they trotted off, I noticed one had a blanket of white dots in its fur.  I think that’s also a good sign, or it should be.

…It’s another beautiful day here, payback from three months of historic rainfall earlier in the year.  I hope the sun is shining where you are and that you’re enjoying it.

…Here are a few things I like mid-week….

-“Everything you can imagine is real.” ― Pablo Picasso

-“I wanted a perfect ending. Now I’ve learned, the hard way, that some poems don’t rhyme, and some stories don’t have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what’s going to happen next. Delicious Ambiguity.” ― Gilda Radner

-“The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.” ― Isaac Asimov

-“There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance. We need to learn to love ourselves first, in all our glory and our imperfections. If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create. Evolution and all hopes for a better world rest in the fearlessness and open-hearted vision of people who embrace life.” ― John Lennon

-“People aren’t either wicked or noble. They’re like chef’s salads, with good things and bad things chopped and mixed together in a vinaigrette of confusion and conflict.” ― Lemony Snicket

-“Too many people spend money they earned..to buy things they don’t want..to impress people that they don’t like.” ― Will Rogers

-“A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.” ― George Bernard Shaw

-“To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch. To try and understand. To never look away. And never, never to forget.” ― Arundhati Roy