My moral life ...

Just had coffee with one of my best friends, Jeff. He's one of the coolest people in the universe, too: smart, kind, encouraging, enthusiastic, too many dogs (!) ...

Anyway ... I sent him the aforementioned forward from CatholicVote.com and he LOVED it, of course, and sent it along to a bunch of people he knows.  But he said that that I should not have asserted what I did in my response, in particular "... i'm utterly opposed to most of what it said morally, spiritually, intellectually and emotionally ..."

"You do not disagree with that video," claims Jeff.  "You live a very moral life, you live a very family-centered life."

Now isn't that the loveliest quality in a friend?  The ability to see good things in you that you hadn't thought of?

I am counting my blessings.

Oops, I did it again ...

Ah, the conundrum of e-mail forwards, especially these days.

After weeks of getting red-neck Republican anti-Democrat e-mail forwards from one friend (I didn't realize anyone I knew was rich enough to be a Republican?!), I got a forward from another dear friend yesterday from CatholicVote.com and that, apparently, was the tipping point.

I love this gal; and one of the many things I've admired about her for years is the way she lives her faith and walks the walk.  She's one of the best "advertisements" for Christianity going, but she never pushes what she believes on other people.  Which is why I suppose it was unfortunate that I chose this email to reply to -- and of course, when I have something to say, I always hit "reply all" ...

So now her brother is most decidedly vexed with me and I have to decide whether to continue the debate of issues with him via email, not reply at all, try to point out that "see, when you feel your deeply held beliefs are under attack, you also feel compelled to fire off an email," or just write him a pleasant e-mail focusing on what a peach his sister is.

I'm leaning toward the latter.

But I'm wondering: some of these forwards (in particular ones I used to get about the immigration issue) strike me as almost as inappropriate as racial or sexist humor.  Conventional wisdom seems to be that in the face of "jokes" like that, you need to shut the joke-tellers down firmly and let them know that you find that kind of thing unacceptable.  But what about politics and religion, especially in the form of forwarded e-mail? If you take issue with a forwarded message are you risking hurting a friend over nothing more than electronic junk mail?  But if you just delete it, are you giving tacit approval to the views expressed?

Ah yes, morality in this grand new century.

One thing I'm sure of though ... it can't be legislated.

(See how I am?)

I can see clearly now ...

... what my dogs look like ... and they can see clearly now, period.

Melvie Koleen needs to have the hair trimmed out of her poor blind eyes ... but we leave her coat fairly long and augment with sweaters from now until June!

Meanwhile, six-pound Helen will probably end up with a sweater, too ... and she, too, needs the hair trimmed away from HER poor blind eyes...

Maudie the Moose just needed an overall shave.  Unlike Melvie and Helen, she and Rosalie are almost always too warm.





 

We lost the poof on top (Hallelujah!  I can see her eyes again!) and had them trim her tail short, too, in case she ends up playing with her new puppy pal in the burrs -- I mean, woods.

And finally, Rosalie the topiary.  The object here is to cut her rotund little body short, thus helping to keep her a comfortable temperature.  The fur on her little stick legs is left a little longer to help balance out her round little body.  

Then she gets a little "moustache" to camoflage her tusks.  Rosalie only has about five teeth, but four of them are truly massive canines.  

However, there is nothing a little snipping and Rosie's irrepressible joie de vivre can't overcome. 

Dogs never lie about love ... but everything else ....?

Jeffrey Masson wrote a wonderful book called "Dogs Never Lie About Love."

About other stuff, though?

Take Helen Anne, for instance. Friday afternoon, she was on three legs. Still arking happily, still wagging her tiny tail, but holding one of her hind legs up tight to her body.

Since she seemed basically cheerful, and I could ascertain no blood or shattered bone, I decided to give it a few days.

Saturday: three legs.
Sunday: three legs.
Monday: three legs.

So I called the vet Monday morning, made an appointment for 9:45, raced home to bring her in: she's not only on four legs, she's hopping up and down on her hind ones with delight that I'd come home.

As my father used to say, "They don't give Academy Awards for performances in the kitchen."