This is My Country

“That’s the best movie we’ve seen in a long time,”

I comment to DeRay after President Obama’s

State of the Union Address last night.

I meant it as a sincere compliment.

It had all the drama and intensity of

A Few Good Men;

The Jackie Robinson Story;

The Butler.

It had humor and solemnity.

It elicited hope, equality, fairness, and reverence

with no bad words or explicit sex,

like some scripts.

I was moved to tears more than once.

I feel like a new American;

My patriotism and confidence rekindled.

God Bless America

and

Everyone Everywhere.

Therapy

My knees and shoulder are feeling a little better

After the first eight laser treatments and adjustments,

which begin on the rolling table

where it feels like a huge python

that just swallowed a live fighting tiger

is slithering under you

back and forth

until you are senseless.

Feels so good (if you can forget the python).

Then, if they remember,

Someone massages your back

With a loud vacuum cleaner.

Followed by the diabolic doctor

Pushing, crunching and twisting.

I can’t even bend my knee

And he pulls it back and jolts.

“Are you OK?”

To compensate, he pounds both

Knees with a jack hammer.

The best part.

The slightly warm laser treatment

Is recovery in dark glasses.

It’s not over.

Back you go to be electrocuted.

Tiny electrical shocks to both knees

As strong as you can tolerate.

One time I tolerated too much

And walked like a tin soldier

For awhile.

Thank you for asking.

Do you ever get the feeling

you are talking to yourself?

I do.

Elder Carroll’s Homecoming

He didn’t get transferred after all the hullabaloo.

Emily and Bob always have the missionaries

to dinner on Tuesday night;

This one was styled

“Welcome Back, Elder Carroll”.

They had to buy more ice cream

because they had Hot Fudge left over.

Some people know how to party.

He could have kept the Carroll book longer;

But if he didn’t have time to read it the first two months,

He probably wouldn’t find time in the next two.

Keep strummin’, Elder Carroll, cousin.