Occupation of Independence

 This certainly was the week to swing from one extreme to the other, in the dog world.  After the rez dog experience, I was surprised to encounter a young black-and-tan coonhound on a bike ride in the ponderosa forest .  He was not completely trained yet, despite his radio collar and antenna.  He came over to the bike to make friends with my dog. My, what big feet he had!  Soon I saw his trainer working three adult hounds.  They and their trainer were 95% business, with no time to socialize.  The trainer said that he had just found a deer that had been killed by a mountain lion , perhaps the previous night. It is easy to admire dogs who are amazingly trained, no matter what their specialty.  But I have never been tempted to own a 'specialist.'  I prefer a well-rounded, companion dog.  My little girl was confused by the size of the ponderosa log that was blocking our road: And she was delighted with the deer antler found near camp: Po...

 An English-speaking North American doesn't get too much of a chance to experience drastically different cultures while traveling in North America.  So when that traveler goes through an Indian Rez , it can be seen as a long-overdue chance to experience a different culture.  New Mexico has quite a few Native American reservations . There are people -- usually from blue counties on the coast or Europe -- who think there is something chic about the Rez, with all the art and handicrafts.  That was particularly true in the tourist town I was in.  I am not so taken in by all that.  I expect theft, homelessness, and pitiful dogs hanging out at gas stations. So there are at least two ways to see Reservations.  My purpose here is not to decide which viewpoint is the correct one, but rather, to use the tension between these two viewpoints to have a more interesting travel experience. An uncollared dog was walking around the parking lot.  The nearby high...

I will spare the long-suffering reader my stump speech, and write only about fresh manifestations or embodiments of it.  A great example of that happened lately in a small mountain range in southeastern Arizona . There was a secondary tourist attraction nearby.  The rocks were fun to look at.  And there was a little bit of history, too. I avoided most of the visitors, and chose a nearby area that featured a different kind of scenery.  The grass had big seedheads on it -- it looked like a kitchen scrub brush.  This grass was tawny and was left over from the last monsoon season .  Just imagine how lush it seemed at the end of last year's monsoon season -- it is no exaggeration to call it a miracle. And there were water resources in my hills, as well.  That is no small thing in Arizona.  The hills were soft, feminine, and useful: I sighed with relief when thinking about these things.  And so I want to know: do other long-term travelers out-grow...

What luck!  I like the 1964 movie, "Becket", and while searching for it on You Tube they suggested a new digital restoration of the movie on the Shakespeare Network.  The movie had twice the effect on me because of Khamenei's murder in his home, just a couple weeks ago. During the movie, analogies came to mind between the victims of King Henry II (of Normandized England) and Iranians' attitude towards martyrdom.  The analogies fizzled out quickly and then reappeared.  It was all quite tantalizing. The characters in "Becket" were always talking about honor.  King Henry II claimed an aristocratic woman (who was in love with Becket) just as a test of how loyal Becket would be when the chips were down.  Would Becket live up to a previous promise to Henry II by turning the woman over to Henry? When the woman learned that Becket was relinquishing her to King Henry II she said to Becket, "You've not found anything in the world to care for, have you?...