April Walk with Dharma

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Ode to Dharma

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   “The average dog is a nicer person than the average person.” --Andy Rooney      We stood there looking down at her. She sat there gazing up at us. She had tried and tried to make it to a standing position, having wet herself in the process, and we tried to boost, support, and lift her. Until this morning, we had always managed to get her 90 lb. body moving. Today, with a finality that shook us to the core, she laid back down. It could not have been more clear. She wanted us to know she was done trying.    Earlier that morning, we were discussing what we thought was the slow demise of Dharma’s back legs. A trip to the vet the week before determined that our 13 ½ year old Lab-Doberman was suffering from gradual nerve deterioration in her spine. For the last couple of years, she had become slower and weaker, but she figured out how   to acclimate herself to her old-age problems. She could still pull herself up onto the couch, and still loved...
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The Miracle of the Hand, Part One by Julie Elias with Gary Bird

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All this washing of hands lately—it has had us thinking, well, about hands: how useful they are, how beautiful they are, how culturally indispensable they are. We clean with them, work with them, make art and music and inventions with them. We text with them, travel with them, make repairs with them. Dabbing would not be dabbing without them (Google: “Betty White dabbing” and you’ll see the best example). We greet with them. We welcome with them. We comfort and cure with them. We reject with them. Think about it. Hands are truly amazing. We looked up NBA players with the biggest hands. Boban Marajanovic, center for the Dallas Mavericks, wins the prize with a hand length of 10.75 inches (base of the palm to the tip of the middle finger), and get this, a hand span (pinky to thumb) of over 12 inches. Keeping it close to home, Milwaukee Bucks’ Greek Freak, Giannis Antetokounmpo, is a close second. His hand span is equal that of Marajanovic, but just an inch shy in length. Of co...
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The Miracle of the Hand, Part 2

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“Hand me that wrench over there…”  “Sure thing! You mean the one with the blue handle or the hand-adjustable one?” Again with the hands! This is Part 2 of a column that Gary Bird and I co-wrote and posted back on March 19 of this year. In Part 1, we talked about our fathers and how their hands told the story of the lives they led and the values they lived by. Kelly Carswell added a poignant description of her grandfather’s farm-worn hands.  We also mentioned hand size, comparing NBA player Boban Marajanovic’s hands with those of tiny Kristin Chenoweth, the 4’11” actress from the Broadway musical “Wicked”. We mentioned Alan Alda’s unforgettable monologue from M.A.S.H. where he describes the miracle of the hand. I sent our family a text, asking to help me out today as I write. I requested that they think of the word “hand” and tell me what crosses their mind on the spot. What followed was a bombardment of phrases from the very silly to the profound.  “Han...
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