Beech Tree News Network

    I seeem to be on a ponderous path-wanting to chew and rechew the rag some. Maybe I will wear it out
after a bit.

    I read where: We accept certain things about ourselves that are not as they should be-yet we manage to live with them. The atonment for those things in ourselves that should not be, is that we make allowences for others. But still we tend to rub our guilty conscience against others the way we wipe dirty fingers on a rag. The Christian writer, C.S. Lewis, hammered this a little harder: "We dislike in others the same flame that hold sway over us."
    One of our presidential candidates is advocating diplomacy with those around the world who hate America and want to destroy us. This brings up the question: How do you talk to swine? Swine care for nothing, nor do they comprehend anything but their own boorish agenda.  What do you say to swine? If you've ever seen a bunchof hogs eat slop at the trough, you learn how a hog will brawl, quarrel, make war, fight, to get his way at all the slop-he's determined to be "all-hog at the trough." Do you for one second think "boss-hog" understands or cares about diplomacy? Now try and plug this diplomacy into the rancor and hatred of Countries like: Red China, Russia, North Korea, and hostide Arabic Countries of the Middle East, and see how high it will fly.  It's my
opinion that ole dog won't hunt.  How do you talk to swine?
    We who aspire to good writing must read good writing; not to plagiarize, but to learn good wordcraft. Here is an example: A light-footed fog is just now drifting over the rim of the amphitheater of the city. Metaphors are sort of like exclamation marks. They are good where they help, but they can be overworked in good writing. The same goes for colloquium-they can get tiresome. Tred lightly on both. I must confess though, sometimes it's hard for me to pass up a good "ah shucks" by-word. I guess I've chewed this rag good enough this trip. At 83, I still think about goin' back to the rodeo sometimes-then I remember my last steer-roping attempt; at a dead run-on the back swing of mylariot I hung it over a fence post. This wasn't good for me on the horse either. Alway drin up-stream
of the heard.
                            Kindest regards...