Dog Fights & God's Commands

I want my blog to be about truth, what's really going on in my life and heart, I don't want to sugar coat the rough parts and make it appear that I have everything together and my life is perfect. It is taking a great deal of self discipline to sit down and chronicle my shortcomings and dreams missed in such a public forum, but I do feel it is affecting me in a very positive manner. I love that positive reinforcement I feel when someone agrees; or not necessarily agrees but understands, grasps, what I am trying to convey. It gives me a sense of pride that I have undertaken something that will better myself, and so far I have stuck with it, despite the way it intimidates me. My laptop, given as a birthday gift last year, now symbolizes 'another job' I need to get done. Man why do I do this to myself? Just constantly add to the list of what has to get done. I do it because I know it is going to make me a deeper thinker, a second guesser, not one who just believes everything I'm told, but questions what may seem off kilter. I am doing it because I want to be more self actualized, and I want to make sense of what happens and has happened. I crave what we all do, the human connection.

As I sat down to write tonight's blog, the blank page was just staring back at me. I looked up from my laptop and saw straight ahead of me our little 2 pound dog, Lily, wrestling with our 105 pound dog, Boomer. Believe me, Lily wrestles Boomer with wild abandon. She doesn't realize she's only two pounds, in her mind she is a force to be reckoned with, a born scrapper, behaving as if she were born and raised on some mean inner city streets of dog-dom, where you had to fight to survive. She doesn't see that Boomer can put her entire neck and head in his mouth with one fell swoop. They are hilarious the way they growl at one another, you would think we were running a dog fighting ring if you only heard them and didn't see what was actually going on.

Boomer is very gentle with Lily. He loves to be around her, playing tug of war with a puppy rope, outrunning her to the ball when Moon throws it, letting her catch up and get that ball, then running back to Moon with Lily. Is that how I approach life? Am I a Lily or a Boomer?

Perhaps I am a mixture of the two. I am for the most part a Boomer. Patient and kind, considerate of others, especially the young, the elderly, the frail, the ones who may not have the education, knowledge or resources to realize when they are being taken advantage of, the ones who don't quite have a grasp for the technology that us 'young folk' have in abundance. After all, that is who we are required to protect when we are in our younger years, the weak, the defenseless, the ones that took care of us when we were too young and full of naivete to know safety from danger.

I can remember trying to teach my grandmother to use the ATM. Oh, man. Now THAT was a trip. She just could not trust that some tiny machine in a Chevron station knew how much money was in her account, and I honestly don't think she WANTED that machine to know her business. She believed somewhat that you could trust banks, but she still kept a little money stuffed back in her mattresses. After all, she was a child of the depression, and those lessons would never be unlearned. She grew up appreciating every glimpse of copper penny that flashed through her life, brand new shiny ones or worn out ones, coated with the turquoise patina of human use.

I'm a little bit Lily, also. I will take on the giants and the bullies if there is something that needs to be said or done. I will go to the mat for my family and my employees in a heartbeat, and I won't back down. If someone related to me or that works for me is being mistreated, you can bet your last dime I'll do everything in my power to make sure the situation is rectified. I have a little of Lily's bullheadedness, too. I don't care if the other person on the end of the rope is 10 times my size, I will never show fear. I will fight til the bitter end, if nothing else than out of my desire for everyone to be treated on the same level and treated fairly. I detest an unjust balance, and I'll take my licks trying to rectify whatever wrong has been incurred.

How do I know I'm a little Boomer? Because I give of my time to children. I volunteer at the animal shelter, I have participated in many church activities in my past that were solely for children, I participate in the reading program for PRM, for the illiterate and the sight impaired. You give an hour or two a week and they record you as you read newspapers, circulars, books, magazines, etc for those that are visually impaired or illiterate. I do it to remind me how rich my sight, my literacy, my education, however humble it may be, makes me.

And, lastly, how do I know I'm a little Lily? Because I've made certain people not too crazy about me when I point out how they should be ashamed of themselves for the way they treat children. How they talk down to them, how they don't treat them with respect. I have told teachers and administrators that they should seriously reconsider their chosen professions, because they don't have the kids best interests at heart. I've made enemies over it, trust me. I've told parents and people twice my age that they need to step back and reconsider what they say about the kids that may not be their 'favorite', because God commanded us that children are first and foremost in His eyes, and whomever turns them away from God, and doesn't embrace them with the love of God, will have to answer for it. He commands us to respect and care for our elders. These things are to be taken to heart, to be ingrained in our hearts and minds, not to be taken lightly. They should be second nature to us.

Funny how the non-verbal communication of my two crazy dogs reinforced a lesson of respect, tenderness, compassion, acceptance, and patience that I have heard in numerous Sunday school lessons and sermons.

That's why I'm blogging. To get to know what I know, that I should've already known I knew. Whew.



Boomer can't catch a break from Lily,
she sits on him when he ignores her!