social media - One Less Dog In The Hunt

You know, I’m a fan of Lonesome Dove. I find a lot of meaning in Larry McMurtry’s characters. One character in particular reflects an individual who floats through life using situations, people, and opportunities to his advantage. Jake Spoon is what Augustus McCrae calls a leaky vessel, someone you just simply can’t count on to be there or to do things right. In a fateful scene in the movie, we can see the struggle Jake faces with personal responsibility. When Gus accuses him of crossing the line between being a citizen or an outlaw, his response is one with which perhaps many individuals today can relate.

“I didn’t see no line, Gus.”

In life we come against a lot of lines – lines which separate organization from chaos, good from bad, happy from sad, and life from death. As a society we have drawn lines. Some are helpful. They help us live peacefully together, such as lines of law and order. Others help us establish boundaries – city limits, county lines, state lines, and property lines. Often lines can help to keep us safe – caution lines, traffic lines, and fence lines. Other lines help entertain us – I’m thinking of goal lines, free-throw lines, and finish lines.

Other lines aren’t helpful at all, like the lines we draw between ourselves. Lines which classify us, and divide us – race, ethnicity, age, sex, politics, and religion. These aren’t lines we’ve drawn for positive use in our society, they are lines which have become walls to separate us from each other. These are the lines that many hope to erase within our society, our country, and the world.

Maybe it’s just because I’m growing old. Maybe it’s because the people I talk to most of the time are growing old as well. Maybe it’s the tumultuous times we live in. Whatever the reason, I find that the conversations I get involved with tend to center on how much simpler life used to be. I talk with others and we remember the uncomplicated ways in which we lived, grew up, had fun, and learned about life. I find myself wishing my kids had known that world, and I do my best to share it. No, it wasn’t all sunshine and lollypops.

We grew up in a strange time. Our parents were the product of the fifties and sixties. Though Howdy Doody was long before my time, he was still around in reruns, as were the Mouseketeers. I watched Shirley Temple movies, and the Three Stooges which were all more a part of my mom’s generation. Woody Woodpecker and Popeye cartoons started off most movies at the theater. PPPP Porky Pig always told us when we had hit the end with “TTThat’s All, Folks!” We had Mr. Ed, Gilligan, Gomer (Shazam!), and Coyote and Roadrunner (beep-beep). We still lived in the age of the Western so we watched Bonanza, Gunsmoke, The Big Valley, and Have Gun Will Travel. At our grandparents’ homes we were exposed to the weekly dose of country and hillbilly which came the Hee Haw! Yet, we also had cutting edge shows like Salvage 1, The Six Million Dollar Man, Mannix, Kojak (Who loves ya, Baby?) and some of the best James Bond movies.