Day: May 9, 2018

Good news. Robin Gibbons has decided to go ahead and try to breed Hannah, Gus’s mother, once more. We love Hannah, she is one of the sweetest and brightest dogs we have yet know, a great mother for our new puppy. The first breeding effort was this morning, but Robin said a brief text saying “no luck today. We’ll try again tomorrow.”

I’m grateful to Robin for going ahead, it was a tough decision for her, losing Gus was as painful for her as it was for us. There are risks in every worthwhile thing in life. I told robin that many more dogs get cancer than megaesophagus and we will take our chances, but we also said we would understand if she didn’t breed.

Gus’s illness and death were not fun.

I hope the breeding takes tomorrow and I have great faith in Robin’s compassion, integrity and faith. Sometimes you do just have to take the leap of faith. And jump. I’m ready.

People are messaging me with warnings and cautions and ideas – keep a muzzle on the new pup, no coming into the pasture, keeping any kind of edibles inside or outside away. But that’s not the way we think here, it’s not the way I think.

If Hannah is bred, and we do get a puppy. we will shed fear and worry behind. Our puppy, if it comes, will be a dog just like our other dogs, and will live the life of a dog, not a crystal chandelier. There may be risks in that, and we happily accept them.

We can’t create  a perfect world for our dogs, or for us. I could get run over going to the mailbox any given day, it happens all the time. I will not live in fear, nor will I raise a dog in fear. I take full responsibility for my beliefs. Our dogs will live the lives of dogs, for as long as they can, and within reason.

I do the best I can for as long as I can.

“We are not enemies, but friends,” said Abraham Lincoln in his First Inaugural Address, “we must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection.”

The Army Of Good is a powerful idea. It is about our better angels, and the idea of keeping good alive in a time of great passion and division. It’s about not being enemies, or hating one another.

Our work is simple. We commit small acts of great kindness.

We also believe it is better to do good than argue about it.

You don’t have to be a politician to be a moral leader, and I am learning that everyone in the Army Of Good is a moral leader in his or her own way, and by his or her own lights.

To this end, we are printing up 500 bumper stickers to start, mostly because I don’t  have enough money to print more. That, I believe, will come.

I have come to like this design a lot, thanks to Sara Kelly for her lovely design and hard work. She is fun.

The bumper sticker is bright, affirming and uplifting, something about it captures us. I can’t wait until I see one on a car, or until you e-mail me photos of your car.

The bumper sticker will cost $10 a sticker, no extra charge for shipping, and can be purchased in  two ways:

1. By sending cash or a $10 check to me, Jon Katz, at Post Office Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816. Please mark the check or envelope “Bumper Sticker.”
2. When the bumper stickers are printed sometime this week, they can also be purchased on Maria’s Etsy page. They will not be available for sale until we have them in hand to ship out. This might take up to two weeks.

Please don’t send pre-orders via Paypal or e-mail, i can’t be  responsible for those.

This is a good move, it takes the idea of the Army Of Good to a different level and brings it a bit into the material world, into our neighborhoods and towns. This sticker, like the group, is not partisan, it is not about the left or the right. I count many on both sides among my readers, and among the Army Of good.

I don’t believe that doing good has yet become a partisan issue, and it won’t be here. People can argue elsewhere, if they are so inclined. We often disagree here, but we are not enemies, but friends.

Lincoln said that the “mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely as they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”

I see each bumper sticker as a better angel,  going out into the world to spread a good and loving message. We need that. The Army Of Good is everywhere, in every state, I believe, and some other countries. Perhaps doing good will go viral.

If you wish to commit a small act of great kindness, you can do so here and now on the New Amazon Mansion Wish List. There are ten new items there, all inexpensive, some DVD’s the residents want to see and some seeds and plants for the wonderful garden the residents want to plan in the coming weeks. Hope you can help and thanks for your interest in the bumper sticker. A step forward.