What is that crazy dog up to now?! She took off running up a cliff. But I have learned that bizarre behavior on her part is usually due to ravens. The raven sat right at the top of this strange, ugly geologic feature.
She never learns that the raven will simply fly away before she gets there. On the way down, Coffee Girl seemed to pose for the camera, with a look of contentment in her body language.
It seems that I am content to look at things from her point of view.
Often I run across unpleasant and impractical dogs, and wonder why the owner was so 'stupid' as to choose that dog. But to be fair, it really isn't about stupidity. Didn't the Bard say (more or less) that 'a young man falls in love with his eyes, not with his heart.' The same could be easily said about most people as they choose their pets.
It would be better to choose a dog blindfolded. Lower your hand to its mouth for an eager, but bashful, lick. Feel its body start wriggling when you pet it. Hear the vibrato of its wagging tail.
The same thing happens with motor vehicles and RVs. Does 'Mildred' (of Fred and Mildred fame) care about anything other than the color schemes in her new rig? Later, she encounters one disappointment after another. She acts surprised.
But being a bit indifferent to the scenery of Moab doesn't mean that there aren't other things to make the experience interesting. Rolling into town the other day, I was once again amazed at how hellishly hot canyon bottoms are. A month of thermal progress was wiped out in a second. I was furious!
My years of experience with travel have taught me not to suppress my aversions, because soon, something ironic usually happens. Later that same day, it did happen. Instead of closing up the trailer at night, like you would in the high country, I left everything open. How wonderful it felt to have cooling, but still balmy, wind blowing over the skin. I could relax with my environment, instead of bracing against it, like you would in the high country.
What is most amazing is that these sense-impressions through the skin never seem to get boring, as most delights do.
In being surrounded by hordes of scenery tourists, it helps to visualize them as a rather different animal species from myself: they process information differently than I do. So does my dog. I put up with it from her, so why not cut these clownish tourists the same slack?
She never learns that the raven will simply fly away before she gets there. On the way down, Coffee Girl seemed to pose for the camera, with a look of contentment in her body language.
It seems that I am content to look at things from her point of view.
Often I run across unpleasant and impractical dogs, and wonder why the owner was so 'stupid' as to choose that dog. But to be fair, it really isn't about stupidity. Didn't the Bard say (more or less) that 'a young man falls in love with his eyes, not with his heart.' The same could be easily said about most people as they choose their pets.
It would be better to choose a dog blindfolded. Lower your hand to its mouth for an eager, but bashful, lick. Feel its body start wriggling when you pet it. Hear the vibrato of its wagging tail.
The same thing happens with motor vehicles and RVs. Does 'Mildred' (of Fred and Mildred fame) care about anything other than the color schemes in her new rig? Later, she encounters one disappointment after another. She acts surprised.
But being a bit indifferent to the scenery of Moab doesn't mean that there aren't other things to make the experience interesting. Rolling into town the other day, I was once again amazed at how hellishly hot canyon bottoms are. A month of thermal progress was wiped out in a second. I was furious!
My years of experience with travel have taught me not to suppress my aversions, because soon, something ironic usually happens. Later that same day, it did happen. Instead of closing up the trailer at night, like you would in the high country, I left everything open. How wonderful it felt to have cooling, but still balmy, wind blowing over the skin. I could relax with my environment, instead of bracing against it, like you would in the high country.
What is most amazing is that these sense-impressions through the skin never seem to get boring, as most delights do.
In being surrounded by hordes of scenery tourists, it helps to visualize them as a rather different animal species from myself: they process information differently than I do. So does my dog. I put up with it from her, so why not cut these clownish tourists the same slack?
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