The other day, I spent a fair amount of time with someone who had very strong political leanings and opinions completely opposite of mine. That's fine and I'm okay with people having different views and beliefs. That's life and we all have to navigate awkward waters sometimes.
Anyone who knows me knows where I stand politically, something I'm not even going to clarify now because that's not what this is about.
What started out as a healthy political discussion (his insistence, not mine), evolved over the course of a few hours into what felt like an attack. We didn't discuss politics the entire time, but clearly my companion, whom I was forced to spend several hours in a moving car with, was annoyed. Not annoyed, angry. And it became very clear after our fervent political discussion was over, that I had touched a nerve with him because for the entire car ride, he became very provocative and antagonistic in a passive-aggressive way.
"I suppose you don't like the way I drive."
"The light was yellow but you'd probably say it was red."
This kind of behavior continued the entire ride. He provoked, I said nothing. The more I said nothing, the more he provoked. I never felt physically threatened in any way, yet I was clearly under attack.
As a peace-loving soul, it was perplexing and frazzling. I came home to my beautiful wife, Katie, feeling drained and exhausted. She is remotely acquainted with him and pointed out that he had a very difficult upbringing - the son of an alcoholic who was raised to fight the same way.
Anger is such a wasteful emotion. When did we lose our ability to have differences of opinions without attacking each other? I'm fine with anyone who feels strongly about something - more power to you as long as no one gets hurt. But this man's behavior went above and beyond and it saddened me to think that he cannot separate his anger from his hurt. It took a lot of soul searching on my part to brush off the emotional shrapnel to get to a point where I had compassion for him because clearly he is a product of his upbringing.
Will I put myself in a position to be in a moving car with him for hours ever again? No, but I have reached out to him to say I'm sorry our difference of opinion evolved into something negative and he has apologized for being so antagonistic - which led to a healthy discussion about why he is that way and his revelations about his family history. What he endured as a child of an alcoholic has put him in a different, more compassionate light.
The next time you feel yourself provoked to anger, stop, breathe, and think about what good it does - to you as the projectile, and to your intended target. Passion and conviction are not the same as anger. Passion and conviction are beliefs. Anger is just that - a negative, storm-ridden emotion that suits no purpose other than hurting you and others.
Think about it...
I was strolling down the path to the lake the other day when I noticed a sugar maple with an unusual pattern around its bark. Getting closer, I could here the rhythmic "tat, tat, tat" as a woodpecker drilled away on an upper part.
The lake holds us hostage from one season to the next. It moans and groans as it freezes over, teases with occasional streams of fresh water, ices back up, softens, refreezes, and when it's damn good and ready, melts. The water level, which is controlled by a dam at one end, is lowered in the fall prior to freeze up to prevent shore flooding and raised back up as soon as ice out happens. That is the only control we have over it - a mere pittance compared to its power to control our activities from one season to the next.
It never ceases to amaze me how quickly they grow. I've already done a first transplant on most of them, so in the course of just three weeks, the greenhouse is now pretty much maxed out with all kinds of tasty veggies including lots of tomatoes (4 varieties), spaghetti squash, sugar snap peas, basil, lettuce, spinach, zucchini, garlic, etc. We grow what we love to eat. I'm also going to try canning for the first time this year.
In the meantime, I bought this bag of organic soil at Walmart and thought the bag was just so pretty that I saved it and will try to come up with an idea of what to do with it. Any ideas?
What a pleasant surprise I got today when I went to the local supermarket. They had hired a 20+-piece Irish band to play tunes and to celebrate Saint Patty's Day! Folks stood around and listened to "Oh, Danny Boy" and "When Irish Eyes are Smiling" and for a short time, no one worried about rushing around or racing through the aisles. Everyone was in a particularly good mood and full of cheer. Speaking of cheer, there were a lot of Guinness 12-packs spotted in quite a few carts. Well done, Market Basket, well done! 
I'm using all recyclables (except the seeds and soil -- only because I don't have an established garden here yet). I made seed starters from toilet paper rolls, which were okay, but my favorite little seed pots are recycled Keurig cups. I just pop off the aluminum top with a sharp knife, dump the coffee grinds and filter out into the kitchen compost bin, and give the pot a quick rinse. It sounds like a lot of work, but it's really quick to do. Not only are they the perfect size, but they have a hole punched in the bottom already for drainage from the machine.
My seed catalogs finally arrived! There was a delay due to the fact that we moved this past year, so I had to re-request them. Is there anything more fun than pouring through the catalogs and dreaming of luscious gardens filled with ripening vegetables?
This pic is a little hard to see, but the two deer in the background are issuing a challenge to each other over who gets near the food. Note the deer in the middle's posture with ears back and ready to kick out with her front legs. All this was was "posturing" and no one touched each other. The deer on the right backed down right away and retreated back in the woods, thus the hierarchy was maintained. This occasional conflict is part and parcel of the deer's social structure, however, it was the first time I've actually witnessed the "up on hind legs challenge," so it was pretty exciting to see.
