Many years ago, a grumpy old boss advised me, a cocky young reporter, on how to stay grounded: “Never let the peckerheads, toothless ducks, or midgets get you down,” he grumbled.
“They will peck you to death.”
It was very good advice, and I think of it often. In our time, peckerheads and toothless ducks about, their warrens are cable news and social media.
Don’t let them get you down, they will peck you to death., discourage, and distract you Things really are looking up.
I will not be pecked to death.
It is no accident that this sense of a culture resurrected comes at this time of year. I don’t know if God exists or not, but I am feeling him these days. He doesn’t like peckerheads, midgets, or toothless ducks.
I imagine they seem self-pitying and ungrateful to him. I am grateful for life, it isn’t left or right. I don’t imagine God would be either.
If you watch what we call the news in America, it is sometimes difficult to use our own instincts and sense and accept a wider, more bright reality.
The country is still divided, our politicians clawing desperately at one another, people are still getting sick, still dying. In many ways, we still live in different realities.
But there are larger truths, and I believe we are entering one now. Things are getting better. 2021 will be different than 2020.
Yet is different than before, brighter, easier, lighter. There is a sense of opening up, not closing. The angry and strident voices seem more muted, more isolated, less jarring, and meaningful.
Say what you want about his policies or politics, it is uplifting to have a normal, civil human being as our leader. Life without those tweets is a brighter, saner life.
Whatever our leader does or doesn’t do, that is better than what came before him. And I admire him for aiming higher than the peckerheads around him. Striving for something good is better than not striving at all.
I’m happy to see my President stumble a bit, I do it every day. It keeps me humble.
Jobs are coming back, stores and schools re-opening, concerts are being scheduled, baseball parks are opening, friends are coming to dinner, barbecues abound.
Summer camps are accepting applicants, vets are opening their offices, pharmacies receiving their vaccines.
We seem a less confused and fearful people. It just isn’t so dark this Spring. Color and light are returning.
Our politicians have never seemed more out of touch with the masses of working people, tired of fighting, eager for normalcy, hoping and planning, and beginning to get their lives back. We want to feel better. We need to feel better. We deserve to feel better.
That is not up to the toothless ducks. It’s up to us. Nobody can take it away.
Come along or go away.
Every day seems to bring us to a brighter and more hopeful place. That is in part because fewer people are losing their jobs, fewer people are getting sick, fewer people are dying.
We are even giving some aid to the poor for a change, something I can’t really remember us doing as a nation.
I am hearing, seeing, feeling better and brighter days, hearing better and brighter stories – young children liberating their mothers and fathers, heading back to class, stores surviving and re-opening, older people venturing out of their homes and returning to their lives.
My life is rich and full of promise. I’m tending to my own garden this summer, a 72″ raised wooden bed from Canada; I have some wonderful new friends and neighbors, an Amish family just up the road.
Their friendship and presence are a gift to me.
Next week, I can return both to the Mansion Assisted Care Facility and Bishop Maginn High School. Zinnia resumes her therapy work. Maria is contemplating a new sewing machine, a bit deal in our lives.
Small acts of great kindness become easier and clearer. That lifts my heart.
In my own life, a vivid and stirring resurgence. I have all of my vaccines, Maria is getting her second shortly, I’m dropping more chocolates at Walgreens for the beleaguered pharmaceutical staff, I got my toenails painted blue yesterday, the Amish kids are loving the books I’m bringing, and at 2 p.m., next Wednesday, April 7, my new radio show “Katz on Dogs,” broadcasts from its new permanent afternoon slot.
You can hear it on WBTNAM.org, just click on “live,” you can call in on 802 442-1010, or e-mail me your animal questions anytime, or stream on any radio app: [email protected].
Be there or miss out: WBTMAM.org, 2 p.m. Wednesday, April 7.
Life is what you make of it, and I intend to make the most out of 2021. The angry and the hateful can speak to one another.
I’m speaking to rebirth and resurgence, in the wind at this time of year.
My baby sitter growing up was a midget. She was a neighbor and good family friend.
Giving you the benefit of the doubt, I am assuming that your comment about midgets was simple thoughtless.
Susan, it is an old saying. Jon was not calling Little People “midgets.”
Susan, this question is beneath both of us, if you read the piece that way, I feel badly for you. I’m not going to dignity it with an answer. If you’re giving me the benefit of the doubt, why send the message at all? It feels to me like a cheap shot in a good cause. I think we all deserve better.
Thank you! Needed to hear that. Always grateful each day.
❤️
Is the radio show called “Katz on Dogs” or “Katz and Dogs”? You’ve said it both ways multiple times. Which one is correct?
Don’t you want to wait and see? And why do you care?
Yes.
Jon, your blog posts always hit home with me, but this one really dug deep. A little past the middle of this post you wrote,
“That is not up to the toothless ducks. It’s up to us. Nobody can take it away.
Come along or go away.”
I don’t feel good about taking up so much room here, but I feel strongly about sharing what your “Come along or go away” statement held for me. Back in the early 1970s, Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead and the band’s lyricist Robert Hunter wrote this song about Phil’s father who was on his death bed. It’s always held such a strong message about life and love for me, and “Come along or go away” is such a deep part of the song, I felt I had to share it. “Believe it if you need it, or leave it if you dare…”:
“Box of Rain”
Words by Robert Hunter; music by Phil Lesh
Copyright Ice Nine Publishing
Look out of any window
any morning, any evening, any day
Maybe the sun is shining
birds are winging or
rain is falling from a heavy sky –
What do you want me to do,
to do for you to see you through?
this is all a dream we dreamed
one afternoon long ago
Walk out of any doorway
feel your way, feel your way
like the day before
Maybe you’ll find direction
around some corner
where it’s been waiting to meet you –
What do you want me to do,
to watch for you while you’re sleeping?
Well please don’t be surprised
when you find me dreaming too
Look into any eyes
you find by you, you can see
clear through to another day
I know it’s been seen before
through other eyes on other days
while going home —
What do you want me to do,
to do for you to see you through?
It’s all a dream we dreamed
one afternoon long ago
Walk into splintered sunlight
Inch your way through dead dreams
to another land
Maybe you’re tired and broken
Your tongue is twisted
with words half spoken
and thoughts unclear
What do you want me to do
to do for you to see you through
Just a box of rain –
wind and water –
Believe it if you need it,
if you don’t just pass it on
Sun and shower –
Wind and rain –
in and out the window
like a moth before a flame
It’s just a box of rain
I don’t know who put it there
Believe it if you need it
or leave it if you dare
But it’s just a box of rain
or a ribbon for your hair
Such a long long time to be gone
and a short time to be there
My 25 yo trusty Bernina has been having some bad days…instead of buying a fancy new computerized machine…I went for a 1950’s Singer, that I can work on myself. I would love to hear more about what sewing machine Maria is contemplating!