Saturday, March 07, 2009

Out My Back Door


“Doo-ot, doo-ot, do, looking out my back door”, a line from a Credence Clearwater song; don’t care if it’s spelled properly as long as you get the point. Looking out my door is not all doom and gloom in spite of what Obama and congress tell me.

Spring has sprung here in Houston. The Colanchos, which word is spelled correctly, are in full radiance there on the back patio. These are off-spring, pardon the pun, of the same plants my folks gave us when they moved off to Florida many years ago. Originally they were potted plants; but they seem to have thrived in spite of the neglect and lack of gardening skills offered them. These plants found a crack in the concrete and I didn’t have the heart to pull them up as if to equate them with weeds which suffer such a fate.

Another sure sign of spring around here are billowing yellow clouds of tree pollen rolling down the street. Strangers in their cars slow down as they look around for a building on fire, believing the air to be filled with yellow smoke. A film of the powder covers everything so it’s almost a waste of time to wash the car; half an hour later it’s back. If it ever rains, we’re six to eight inches behind for the year and it’s only the first of March; if it ever rains the pollen floats as it’s collected in puddles at the edge of the street so as to look like pools of sulfur.

Mockingbirds, my favorite of all, dive in front of vehicles as they challenge the percentages of survival. I’ve come to admire their sheer grit, wondering if perhaps the Mockingbird should have been the symbol of our nation over the Bald Eagle. No, come to think of it, the Mockingbird has more spirit and would be ashamed of how we cower in the face of adversity. You thought I’d never get around to a political twist.

I listened to the Rush Limbaugh radio show the other day and heard a neat line of thought, one which beats the crap out of, “Oh no the world is ending, my 401k has lost half its value, companies are laying off workers and I might be next”, and the list could go on and on.

No, the right attitude expressed by the host, “I refuse to participate in the recession.” It won’t matter what happens as long as I keep my shoulder to the wheel, continue doing what got me here to begin with and do the best I know how. There will always be challenges; it’s not the challenge that breaks you, it’s how you deal with it. I refuse to give in and let someone else bail me out of something I can accomplish myself.

Now, aren’t those some beautiful Colanchos? “Doo-ot, doo-ot, do, looking out my back door”.

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