If you're wondering why D.K. has not been blogging much lately (or even if you weren't), it is because I have brain freeze. Initially produced by a close contact with a large slice of corporate bullshit, my brain now feels all knotty and squishy. But never fear, I am slowly working my way out of the corporate tax dungeon. Might take a few more weeks. Bureaucracy at its finest! Tons of fun!It's not that I haven't had blog thoughts recently. Oh no, I've had many. But I'm just questioning how original they are. Because here's a strange thing: I found if I just ignored *my* thoughts, I could read them expressed in many other places, often (mostly!) far more insightfully & eloquently than I ever could.
So how about instead of summarizing my unoriginal thoughts, I post a doggie update? The D.K. house is in temporary custody of this little fellow (shown here chewing a bacon-flavored corn cob toy). He is my Nephew's dog, Ark. We used to dogsit him all the time in California, but since we moved to UT, we've only seen him a couple times. We have him temporarily because he was involved in an altercation with a pitbull. He is here healing with us while that situation is being resolved. Ark is the type of dog who manages to fit right in no matter where he is.
This photo is Ark fitting in with one of our old dogs. They used to play together, both of them tearing after balls, up and down steep hillsides, indefatigable. But now she is old and her playing days are over. I think they both look like they realize something is not the same as before. Ark wonders why that once strong muscular bitch can only barely hobble around. And I think our old girl noticed that Ark is wounded, and so she quietly lays next to him in a comforting manner. He is hiding his neck wounds in both of the photos.
In other news: we attended a Unite for Obama rally last weekend. The theme was "Change Utah Can Believe In". It drew a crowd of about 100-150 which is quite large, considering it was 106-degrees and there just aren't that many democrats here. See the uncomfortable Redhead listening intently to a local democratic candidate who believes the Winds of Change can even sweep through Utah this year. I do live in hope.
Trying to escape the heat ourselves, we drove up the nearest 10,000-ft mountain. Pretty cool. At 6500-ft is a little town called Pine Valley with a little church called Pine Valley Chapel. It has an interesting history, built in 1868 by a shipbuilder named Ebenezer Bryce. When he was commissioned to build this church, Bryce protested that he didn't know how, but finally agreed to do it using his shipbuilding skills in the interior, apparently constructing it in the manner of an upside down ship! Unfortunately, tours were over by the time we arrived, but it is something I look forward to viewing on some other hot summer day. Click here to see Eric Dowdle's folkart painting of Pine Valley & see if you can spot the chapel.
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Tonight, we endured the annual bombardment of Fourth of July fireworks. Since 2003, I cannot help but think of Shock'n'Awe during these displays. Yes, on a vastly smaller scale, and of course our fireworks are not particularly dangerous to those viewing them, but I think there is a certain similarity ... boom, BOOM, B-O-O-M!!!
I've always loved this Margaret Bourke-White photo which appears to be looking up Lady Liberty's skirts! To me it captures the sheer power and force of an idea. The Statue of Liberty is a potent symbol providing hope for generations of newly arrived immigrants as well as ongoing inspiration for freedom-seekers around the world. This July 4th, during our 6th year at war in Iraq (notice I do not say at war with Iraq, for we are not now nor have we ever been at war with Iraq, we are simply using their country as a stage for war), I am once again questioning the nobility of spreading freedom by war. There's nothing glorious or patriotic about warfare. Stripped of flags, fanfare, speeches & propaganda, war is simply the result of a series of failures. Sadly, the price of these failures is born almost exclusively by simple, ordinary people. Well, OK, so those are the disjointed thoughts of the brain-frozen D.K. To unfreeze my brain, perhaps I should take a stroll in The Neural Forest:
The above is an actual dye image of some neural paths in your brain which I find absolutely compelling. Doesn't it look like a forest of tall skinny aspens & birches that have dropped a lot of leaves to mulch the ground? This beautiful forest is in your brain! The brain has tons of nerve cells called neurons. In fact, there are more neurons in the brain than there are stars in The Milky Way Galaxy. Good thing, too -- I think I may have burned out quite a few of them lately!
One last strange tidbit ... if you missed the Aztec Death Whistles story this week, be sure to listen to them by clicking here. If death has a sound, this is it. Some of them are ghastly shrieking horrors, others are peaceful birds and frogs. I know which I would prefer at the end ... and what I'll be purchasing for next Dia De Los Muertos.
HAPPY JULY 4 WEEKEND, everyone!
