hero Archives - Owl Medicine: Shamanic Healing

Meet Jackson

Meet Jackson. Jackson is a Rat Terrier who loses his mind every single time we walk past his house. He’s so ‘on alert’ that he begins talking smack at us before we’re even near his family’s property line. As we walk by, he chases us from one end of his house to the other, through the side door, out along the family’s fence and back again. He tears back into the house and jumps onto the back of a couch threatening us with imminent shredding as he glares and bares his teeth and stamps his feet at us through the home’s picture window. (Over and over again. Relentlessly.)

Naturally, we’re friendly with Jackson’s mommy and daddy, and we’ve often commiserated on the relentless cacophony of yipping and yapping he hurls at anyone who even thinks about approaching within a quarter mile perimeter of his home. And yes, I mean ‘his’ home. He hurls abuse at and wards off everyone from his home and his mommy – even his daddy gets the Jackson treatment.

Jackson – Ever Vigilant – Photo: L. Weikel

Heroic Hound

Jackson’s parents assure us that they can almost – sometimes – block out the constant stream of verbal doggie outrage. I believe it; I’m sure it’s true, because sometimes I am so fascinated by his antics that I barely hear the smack talk. Indeed, the predictability of his outrage makes me smile. I would miss him if he didn’t zoom back and forth issuing threats of our imminent demise – every single time he sees us.

He’s a protector.

And over the weekend, he earned his place as Hero Hound in the Annals of Canine Hearth and Home Defense.

As his mommy relayed to me this evening, yesterday afternoon yet another of the usual background noises of her home unexpectedly took on a different tenor. All of a sudden, she realized that the usual clucking of her chickens sounded peculiar. Through the window of her back door, she saw a hawk circling above her brood and then swoop down and land on one of her chickens. She opened the door with the intention of yelling at the hawk when Jackson-the-Wildman tore out the door. Before she could even set one foot outside, he pounced on the hawk and tore it off ‘his’ chicken. Nothing but the hawk’s self-esteem was wounded in the process.

Jackson, meanwhile, stood proudly beside his rattled charge, his tiny tan chest swelling with the heart of a lion on the savannah who’s just defended his pride from the threat of jackals.

Probably Doing Recon – Photo: L. Weikel

Reward

Jackson feasted on a dinner of scrambled eggs last night. His hen gratefully offered them as tribute to her protector. Her hero.

I think we can all agree, Jackson is without a doubt a really Good Boy. And his home is safer because of him.

Jackson – Always Ready to Take You On – Photo: L. Weikel

(T+97)

Photo: L. Weikel

Sadness and Frustration

I watched with sadness and frustration Rachel Maddow’s interview of Elizabeth Warren tonight and was reminded of why I so strongly supported her candidacy. Her intelligence, compassion, and dedication to doing what’s right inspire me. These qualities and other obvious skills of hers actually foster daydreams of what our countrycould actually achieve if she were in charge.

There is not one doubt in my mind that she would surround herself with (truly) the best and brightest individuals ideally suited to getting their job accomplished.

Ever since Elizabeth Warren entered the political arena – back when she first started explaining what the heck was happening when the markets cratered in 2008, and more importantly why – she’s been a hero to me. She then not only succeeded in advocating for the creation of the Consumer Protection Agency in 2010, but then became Massachusetts’s first female Senator in 2012.

I’m pretty sure she’s the only public person (whom I don’t know personally) who I’ve ever felt enough genuine respect and admiration for to call my hero. It’s not a label I bestow lightly.

Last Battle Of Two Old White Men

I could continue to extol her virtues and lament her departure from the presidential race. But let’s face it. She’s out and that’s the political and cultural reality we’re dealing with in the United States in 2020.

My hope is that she will be savvy in utilizing the political clout she’s garnered. I like to think everything happens for a reason. And even though we are now being treated to what will hopefully be the last battle of two old white men for the Democratic nomination (and then an eerily similar, but unquestionably uglier, battle into the fall for the actual presidency), I do believe EW can be a significant unifying force.

Her endorsement has the potential to make a dramatic difference in shaping the perception of what the Democrats both aspire to accomplish and have the actual ability to achieve if they succeed in unseating DT.

“I Miss My Mom and Daddy”

There are a lot of just plain old human reasons I like Elizabeth Warren, too. One of those being her feistiness (“Nevertheless, she persisted,”) and another being what I perceived as her genuinely good-hearted and honest-to-goodness ‘family values’ nature.

Nothing exemplified that more for me than a clip I saw of a portion of her actual announcement that she was withdrawing from the race. While she answered lots of questions, obviously, about her decision, someone also managed to get a question in about how it felt to be in the voting booth on Tuesday and see her name on the ballot for President of the United States.

Her answer? “I think my Mama and Daddy would’ve been proud.” And then she followed up with “I miss my Mom and Daddy.”

This from a 70 year old woman who is the first female United States Senator from Massachusetts, and who is also a mother and grandmother herself. I found it incredibly endearing that she wished her parents were here to share that moment of looking at a ballot and seeing their girl’s name on the ballot – for President.

We missed our chance to elect someone eminently qualified to bring about systemic change from within, with a particular emphasis on rooting out corruption and giving everyone in this country a shot at success. Remember that? It used to be called The American Dream.

May she use her hard-earned political capital to persist in making true change in our country on behalf of all of us.

(T-631)