Ugh! I’m tired of the heat and it is barely August. August came in July. Does that mean September will come now? Well, the fires have already started. That used to be a September thing. Last night the neighbors were in the pool until well past midnight. Why not? We all need to cope.
Complaining about the weather is how many people start a conversation. It has always been a safe topic. Right now it is followed by, “Have you been watching the Olympics?” Well who hasn’t? We have been staying in where it is air conditioned as much as possible, right? And, it doesn’t seem controversial to bring it up.
Humans must have always had charged topics and safe ones or we wouldn’t have etiquette about how to dance through initial conversations, how to change the subject, how to lower the heat verbally. We want and need to be with other people, but we get on each others nerves. The heat really aggravates that making people more grouchy.
The dogs are smart. They find the coolest spot in the house or the yard and take a nap. I’m liking the nap part. And also the attempts to be in conversation, to find ways to connect. It feels like we are in dog days in the economy, in our divided and vitriolic political atmosphere. Wars breaking out and continuing all over the globe.
Could we consciously choose to engage in ways that bring us together rather than driving us apart? We have been choosing to dislike people who don’t think like us for a while now. Are you as bored as I am by this? How about radical niceness. I challenge you to be your best Golden Retriever for the next week. I will emulate my poodle- Bogie. There isn’t anyone he doesn’t like.
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