14 July

Poem: The Great Deep Wells Of The Heart

by Jon Katz
The Deep Wells Of The Heart
The Deep Wells Of The Heart

There are different wells within my heart,

each one richer and more mysterious than the rest,

some are filled with good and fresh rain,

some are far too deep for a single

drop to reach.

Happiness is the great work of the heart,

though every heart is young and frightened,

so easily distracted.

Joy is the great work of the heart,

a holy bag of truth beating so loudly,

sometimes drowned out by the laments

and struggle stories of the world.

Love is the great work of the heart,

though every heart must first be humbled,

and bow to the darkness and crisis and mystery of life.

Every heart must first become a student,

to another heart that has filled itself to the brim

with love, and overflowed with compassion.

14 July

A Good Report Card: My EKG Today, A Healthy Heart

by Jon Katz
A Good Report Card
A Good Report Card

When I had my last EKG a little more than two weeks ago, the doctors looked at it and rushed me to the nearest hospital. This afternoon, I had my first post-surgery check-up from Dr. Patrick Rowley, my cardiologist and he said he was “thrilled” with this EKG, my heart looked and sounded and acted great.

He said it was so radically different from the first EKG that he saw, my heart was working well, pumping blood evenly and strongly. I can feel that. For the first time, I can hear my heart beating at night, I can hear it in my head, the bells of Bedlam Farm.

Dr. Rowley was the first physician I saw at Glens Falls Hospital before I was transferred by ambulance to the Albany Medical Center and he told me the good news was that I was not dead. Close, though, he suggested. He also seemed to sense that I was heading for open heart surgery, not a stent or any other lesser treatment. He suggested that I spent five or six weeks in solitude,  peace and tranquility just taking care of myself after the surgery.

I guess I had to tell him that has not happened, I have resumed work on my book and blog and published my e-book on the carriage horses, already an Amazon bestseller on its first day of publication. I am walking every day, going to movies, eating at the Round House, riding around with Maria,  dressing and showering myself and moving forward. And resting too, I tire very easily and just sleep and close my eyes often.

Dr. Rowley is a shy man, a straight-talker, I like him. He said in a month or so, we would have a long talk about the long haul, that is, the changes I would need to consider to keep my newly restored heart healthy. I know what he means. My diet is very good, I think, but I need some new forms of regular exercise, especially in the winter and I want to lose some weight. Diabetics with heart disease have to think ahead, he said, the surgery will take care of things for awhile, but I have to take care of things beyond that.

I hear him. I will not be going to a gym or doing aerobic exercises, but I have always been very active, and I will find something that works for me. I have to do a lot of listening, think differently about my body, I can’t only live in my mind, as I have done. Dr. Rowley thinks we can cut down on some of the medications in a few weeks, but I will be on several for the rest of my life. Arterial heart disease, like diabetes, is not really curable, just sometimes controllable.

The visit to the cardiologist today was a happy one, in stunning contrast to my visits with them a couple of weeks ago. My heart was beating a different drum today, even I could feel it and see it. Dr. Rowley was very pleased with my intense walking protocol, he said I should continue to press myself a bit, but to always keep in mind that it will take me from six months to a year to fully recover from such traumatic surgery.

Another bright spot: he said my chest was good and strong, my scars healing and he said if I braced my camera with one arm, he might well go for my using it in a few weeks. He said he looked at my blog and he wanted to make sure the blog was pleasurable for me, and not tense or hard work. I said I loved my blog, it was nothing but a joy for me, healing and central to my recovery. Okay, he said, keep writing.

Dr. Rowley was thorough, he asked me a hundred questions about my breathing, pain, movement, sleeping, etc., and he liked the answers to every single one of them. Between us, we did not come up with a single problem apart from sleeping poorly and my continuing struggle to get my diabetes under control post-surgery, he said that would happen, but not for a couple of weeks. The staff at the office seemed shocked that my surgery was only a couple of weeks ago, I felt good about that.

Take it easy, he said. Push yourself a bit, rest yourself, you have done great, he said. Keep doing what you are doing.  I am not used to good report cards, I might ask my friend George Forss to print this EKG up and I can put it up on my wall for inspiration. Maybe my tell-tale heart has inspired me to learn how to be a good student after all. I guess you do have to nearly kill some people to get their attention.

14 July

On Monday, A Happy Heart

by Jon Katz
A Happy Heart
A Happy Heart

I awoke this morning with a happy heart.

– I slept comfortably, without pain, my arms wrapped around my wonderful wife, where they belong.

– I took Red out for a brief round of sheepherding, it’s too hot and buggy to do much, but he enjoyed it and so did I.

– My new e-book, “Who Speaks For The Carriage Horses: The Future Of Animals In Our World,” was published this morning and is now onsale for $3.99, it is a book I never expected to write, I am as proud of it as any book I have ever written. It is about the horses, but also about truth and the way we treat one another.

– I watched some of the World Cup Soccer match with George Forss at his museum and gallery Sunday, it was great to spend time with George, his new communications system was stellar – two flat screens bouncing signals upstairs and back down again, an invisible air condition system fed by fans. George and I are going to see “Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes” this week together, I can’t drive, so I will go in his giant new boat of a car. I am so lucky to know George.

I know little of soccer, the game was intense and fast-moving. I think I am just not programmed for sports or TV-watching.

– I breezed up and down Macmillan Road this morning, it was hot and buggy, it felt good. I am going to see the cardiologist this afternoon, hopefully I can get off some of the medications I am taking, the bottles fill a whole table.

– I am healing in a new and different way, moving more fluidly and generally with less pain. I tire easily, but am coming into my life, I think this is good for about two weeks. Walked a mile-and-a-half this morning, strong and easy. People seem astonished that I am alive and walking around.

-Maria is beginning to return to her life, setting up her studio. My heart is always happy when I think of her and her wonderful creativity.

-I am increasingly aware of how poorly I was feeling and how much better I am feeling now. My heart is, I think, happy right now.

14 July

On Sale Now: “Who Speaks For The Carriage Horses?, ” An E-Book Original, $3.99

by Jon Katz
"Who Speaks For The Carriage Horses?"
“Who Speaks For The Carriage Horses?”

I am excited to announce that my 30th book, “Who Speaks For the Carriage Horses: The Future Of Animals In Our World?” is now onsale, for $3.99. The book also contains about 50 of my carriage horse photos.

I am proud to have written this book, it explores the quite surprising   truth behind the bitter and wrenching carriage horse controversy in New York, a subject I would not have imagined even a year ago that I would be writing a book about. My decision to go to New York City in January of this year and visit the Clinton Park stables – the first of many visits – was a fateful one. I am a former journalist – I worked for the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, the New York Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer, I wrote for Rolling Stone and Wired magazines.

I had been reading for years about the alleged mistreatment of the horses and was surprised to hear the city’s new mayor vow that removing the horses from the city was his first and most important priority upon taking office. He promised to ban them in his first week. He failed in that and was met by enormous and widespread opposition to the ban – all three city papers, a strong majority of city residents, the city’s Chamber of Commerce and horse and animal lovers from all over the country. He refuses to this day to meet with the carriage owners or drivers or discuss his determination to remove the horses from the city.

This week, he announced that he is trying again, he is hopping to move a carriage horse ban through the City Council, generally considered a rubber-stamp entity. I imagine the fate of the horses will end up in the courts, a long and unnecessary fight.

I have always believed in rights for animals, one of my steers was the national poster boy for the Humane Society’s campaign against corporate farming. But this year, I came to see clearly in the carriage horse controversy that the movement  that calls itself supportive of animal rights in New York City and seeks to banish the horses is not helping the horses or other animals, they have become a rogue social culture, obsessed with manipulative fund-raising,  indifference to truth or fairness. They seem utterly ignorant of the real lives and needs of real animals.

They have no right to speak for the carriage horses or to presume to know their rights.

They regularly harass and abuse the carriage drivers and the tourists, visitors and even children who ride in the carriage horses through the city’s beautiful great park, which was, in great measure, designed for the horses. The mayor has never owned a dog or a cat. He proposes to replace the horses with a fleet of $160,000 vintage “cruelty-free” electric cars. My book argues that the carriage horses are among the luckiest, most regulated and most fortunate animals in the world, they are not in need of rescue or government intervention.

Some of the questions addressed in my book:

Does truth matter? Do the people who own animals have any rights at all? It is cruel and abusive for working animals to work? Are the carriage horses really at peril? Can animals remain in our world when the prime goal of the animal rights movement seems to be to remove them to private farms and preserves where they will never been seen again? It is just to take away people’s animals and livelihood because private individuals and organizations – none of whom have been elected or given statutory power – arbitrarily decide to redefine what abuse and cruelty is?

I have written a dozen books about dogs and other animals, talked to countless vets, behaviorists, trainers and animal lovers, I have owned a horse and have three equines of my own – donkeys. I was well equipped to explore this subject. I was profoundly shocked by the failure of the New York City media or political world to question or explore the increasingly outrageous, distorted, or simply false claims made for years now by some animal rights organizations against the carriage trade owners and drivers. I felt it was an outrage, the truth is readily available to anyone who wants to to find it.

I have been writing about the carriage horse controversy for six months and have gathered and edited these writings – and added new material – for this book, which is available only in e-form anywhere digital books are sold. It can be read on tablets, smartphones computers.

I do not believe in the “left” or “right” view of our world. I believe truth and facts matter, and I have worked hard to determine both in this wrenching story. I have dedicated the book to the New York Carriage Drivers, I wish them peace and freedom, they have broken no laws, committed no crimes, ignored none of the hundreds of regulations which govern their work.

It would have taken at least another year to publish this book in paper form, I’m not sure a publisher would have been interested. A portion of the proceeds will go to the fund to Save The New York Carriage Horses. The book was prepared by me alone, and not  in conjunction with the carriage trade, none of whose members have yet seen it. The horse owners and drivers have been very generous of giving me their time and sharing their long and difficult experience. I thank them for that. If any living things in this controversy have been abused, it is the people, not the horses.

I am a trained journalist and experienced and successful animal author, I have written five New York Times bestsellers. I love animals and wish for them to remain in  our world, have work and meaning, and be safe within reason. I hope you will consider buying this book and spreading the word about it if you like it. This week, the mayor of New York City has vowed to resume his campaign to ban the carriage horses from New York. My book could not come out at a better time and thanks for considering it.

I believe this assault on honest and hard-working people who work with animals is an injustice, committed in the name of progressivism, both to the people in the carriage trade and to the horses, who have as much right to be in New York City as we do. If the horses are driven from the city, anlmals all over the country and the world will be taken away from us. New York is the great stage. I hope the book will help to stop this, to right this wrong.

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