The more things change ...

We (the family and I) enjoyed a wonderful Father’s Day yesterday. The Daughter Person wrote a great poem for me about me and her perspective on the job I did helping to raise her. (And here I thought I was the poet in the family.) The Better Half and I visited our son in his group home and, later, had dinner with the Daughter Person, Son-In-Law and Granddaughter. We would live in a better, happier world if everyone had a day as satisfying as mine was. If only we could shift some (most) of our rain storms to somewhere that needs rain more than we do! For today and at least part of tomorrow, many of the counties in Minnesota, including ours, are under a Flood Watch until at least late tomorrow. Sigh! That’s not going to help the fishability of nearby trout streams. Maybe if I explore near the headwaters?

storm clouds persist both literally and figuratively

Photo by J. Harrington

I don’t know about you, but I’ve reached the point where I’m vacillating wildly in my daily degree of support for any Democrat and/or all Democrats. Many times I figure the only good thing about them is that they’re not MAGAts. Other times it's more of “a pox on both their houses.” The world, or at least our part of it, was a better place when there was a fairness doctrine that could be enforced on tv and radio and before money became speech. Since I was active on the internet before commercial use was allowed, I can honestly claim that I liked that better in those days too. It’s not only that I’m tired of sorting mis and disinformation, several qualified observers I read have substantially different perspectives on whether our society is responding at all, or appropriately, to the threats we’re facing as a democracy and a country, let alone how to respond.

I’ve recently been waxing nostalgic which prompted me to do a quick search for today’s “poem.” Five or six decades isn’t a long time in evolutionary and geological terms, but I do find it frustrating that these lyrics, that I first heard in my much younger days, are as relevant today as they were then.

Ally, Ally Oxen Free

Rod McKuen

Time to let the rain fall without the help of man
Time to let the trees grow tall. God, if they only can
Time to let our children live in a land that's free
And ally, ally, ally, ally, oxen free

Time to blow the smoke away and look at the sky again
Time to let our friends know we'd like to begin again
Time to send a message across the land and sea
Ally, ally, ally, ally, oxen free

Strong and weak, mild and meek, no more hide and seek

Time to see the fairness of a children's game
Time for men to stop and learn to do the same
Time to make our minds up if the world at last will be
Ally, ally, ally, ally, oxen free
(Ally, ally, ally, ally, oxen free)
Ally, ally, ally, ally, oxen free
(Ally, ally, ally, ally, oxen free)

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