Around Happy Herman’s Table
Okay, so today we are all sitting together at an enormous table having coffee and doughnuts, but this is not the View, a wild west movie or backstreet brawling bash, so all opinions are welcomed with hearts opened. Saying those words made me think how there are some humans in this world who would require open heart surgery before acceptance could happen in their heart, and a sadness fell over my own. We have much to discuss, my San Saba loves, so I shall try not to slurp the water in my bowl. And well, you enjoy your coffee any way it goes down easiest as we discuss.
Most days I am not even able to stand or walk anymore, and for a dog who needs at least 3 legs to get around, such is a tragedy. The parentals pick me up to carry me and I have even rolled off the couch on to the hardwoods a few times and yet my personality has not changed…I am still Herman, crazy wirehaired dachshund. I am a loving, gentle soul and there is so much about human behavior I will never understand and my heart breaks. There seems to have been some kind of disconnect, break down in moral compass in human nature that happened after the 1990s. I heard the parentals talking about how Shawn and his friends are the last of the outstanding young people they have ever known. Their sense of friendship, family, neighborhood, duty of care to others and animals, and more than that, going places without having to fear they may not return safely. School was a place to learn, to grow in social graces and expand horizons…not worry if life would teach lessons no child should ever learn about death, terror and sorrow. Okay, here is this wire hair’s opinion: I think it is brilliant the parentals of that Michigan student are also being charged in the school slayings. The gun that 15-year-old came to school with came from a home with more than ammunition in the form of bullets. I am one dachshund who has been waiting for shared culpability, someone finally realizing children do not sprout in a wasteland or void. Mom had five children and she was no stranger to problems, but she was present…always there handling things, no matter what, and yes, she has seen the inside of courts, principal offices and had discussions with teachers. She is an amazing mom. And truth be known, she kind of acts like a mom to everyone, you know, takes them under her wing, dotes on them, worries about them, loves them as if they are her own. Yeah, she is quirky and weird like that. Now, it may be your opinion mom’s generation was old fashioned and backward thinking, too protective and involved, and it seems now all that matters is status, money, success and what proper program a child is enrolled in - but at what cost to humanity? Where is the program of parental responsibility, and if a child can be charged as an adult, what of the so called ‘adult’ who helped shape a child into a mass murderer or failed to seek help for one?
I promise I didn’t have any sour grapes at our doughnut meeting. I am not even allowed to have grapes. I suppose being more like a dachshund pillow than an active little troublemaker has made me more reflective and philosophical. Perhaps it would have been more polite to point out that bit of jelly dripping on chins or the powder sugary smiles, yeah, perhaps. Hey, if someone doesn’t stir the pot, ingredients will stick to the bottom of the pan and scorch… everyone knows it; besides, I am known as a bit of a pot belly pig anyway - making a stir no matter where I go. The thing is, the world frightens me but not in a selfish way…for all of you who are not protected from it. I love you so much, my San Saba stars of hope, and I thank you for being.