Comments from an old friend...

... in response to an email that echoed, but pre-dated my blog entry "John's Blue and Having a Pity Party.

[John]

You know I'm not the preachy, speachafying type telling other people how to live. But I'm taking time out of my busy day (O.K. I got really cold this morning doing chores so I'm trying to avoid going back outdoors.) to get on your ass about one of your last e-mails. Hells bells boy, anybody can die in a bike wreck. It takes a special person to survive one and then go on doing more crazy shit for 40 + years. Like when that horse crushed my back in the rodeo, I could have listened to the doctors when they said it'd be 6 weeks before I could get out of bed and 6 months before I could walk and a year before I could get back to work and then I'd probably never be able to chase cows or carry feed or get up and down off the tractor again. But that's what a wimp, weenie, spineless, liberal Democrat (but I repeat myself) would have done. Four days later I was out loading hay. Two weeks later I was back riding - well, bucking off - horses again. And haven't missed a day since and stil [still] doing stupid ship [shit] whenever the oppurtunity [oh, why bother, lol] presents itself. Just like you and your leg. And you know why, John? Cause we're special, that's why. We've done stuff and we've got stories. And in the end that's what it's all about. You put your left foot in you put.....

Sorry. I got distracted. It's about how many stories you got and how good they are. Now a story about a guy getting killed in a bike wreck takes up about 2 miles on a road trip. I can easy take up 50 miles telling your story. You know how many people die every day without having no stories to tell.? 2,000,000!!! O.K I made that up but I bet it's a lot. How many people do you know that camped out in a farmers field for a year? (I don't know how long it was, but when I tell it, it was a year.) How many people seen owls sitting on the Supreme Court? (Other than Gingsburg). How many people have talked to geese and deer and actually made lug nuts? (Which ranks right up there with shaking crab legs, let me tell you) And can say "Hi Jack" to Mr. Spacely for crying out loud. Man, we are so special we ought never die.

Now, I like your coyote quote and I'll give you another one from a book called North to Yesterday . "How art the mighty fallen. Littleness has inherited the earth. Commonness has become a virtue and all cows are tame." Us and the coyotes may be all that's left of whatever it was we were, but by god we're still here and a cow almost crippled me yesterday. I'll give you it's been tough (a lot of which we made our ownselves, but screw that) so I'll leave you with one from Garth. "I could have missed the pain but I'd of had to miss the dance." We danced, man! And we danced better cause you were around. So don't give me no dyin shit.

Take care,
L___

P.S. One from Toby Kieth. "I ain't as good as I once was, but I'm as good, once, as I ever was."

[and, that's my old friend...]