A Safe Zone

My family got our first dog when I was 14. Her name was Ruby.  She cost $15. Her “papers” consisted of the small bill of sale.

Part Shepard, part Lab, if I remember correctly.

A great dog who could occasionally get into mischief.

If she did something wrong and made it to the corner of the dining room behind the extra dining room chair and near the heating vent, she had made it to her “safe zone” and there was no reprimand or punishment.

Dad always felt everyone and everything needed a safe zone.

Even with his kids, he would say “if you tell the truth you will not get in trouble but if you lie getting back my trust would take a long time”.

Oh believe me, he would use the skills he perfected each day at work as a trial attorney questioning a witness when questioning his kids.

You usually confessed and he was good to his word.  No real punishment followed.

Not a person who believed physical punishment, his disappointment in your often sufficed.

The two times he hit me, I deserved it.   Once as a young child wandering off the block we lived on in the Bronx and no one could find me.  The other time he came home to a rip roaring party in our house while he and mom were out.  Obviously, the party had not been sanctioned by my parents.

Dad’s famous last words when he and mom went out were “nobody in and nobody out”. 

The surprising part was after he hit me, he went back to the dance he and mom were at and then the thing that surprised me the most, he called me and apologized to me for hitting me.

Mom on the other hand, raised with a heavy hand, the same way she had been raised.  She would also ground you for ridiculous amounts of time.

I think technically I am still being grounded for that unsanctioned party when I was 16.

Anyway, there was a safe zone for the dog and no backing us into a corner as long as the truth was told.

He said he didn’t believe in cornering people and that everyone deserved to have a way out.

When Jenn was young, it was time out on the stairs.

I would just point and she would sit there until I told her she could move.

I am not saying I never laid a hand on her.

I can remember two incidences, as a two year old running toward a busy road and an occasion when she was being disrespectful to me.

My guilt was so bad, I called school and had her called out of class so I could talk to her an apologize.

Everyone should have a safe zone, a place where we can shut out the rest of the world.

There we can dream.

I have my writers nook.

A recliner, weather worn folded up louvre door, Mom’s antique desk which holds so many of my treasures, my lego typewriter (thanks Jenn), a lamp, 12 years worth of journals and books I love covering everything from cheese to Italy to Dr. Seuss’s banned books to the annual writers guide.

I can sit in the corner, drink my coffee and soak it all in.

As I continued to be glued to the news this week, I think of those poor people in the Ukraine.  They have no safe zone.  They have been promised a chance at safe passage out of their homeland and then bombs and air strikes begin.  The agreements are being broken as soon as they are being made.

We are seeing the true definition of evil.

We are feeling a true sense of sorrow.  

I am in awe of President Zelensky. What a leader.  A man who went from 2006 winner of “Dancing with the Stars” Ukraine version after his career as a comedian to his 2019 election to President of the Ukraine with 73% of the vote.

I wish we had such a decisive leader in the person occupying the White House.

Oh wait corrrect that, he is in Delaware again this weekend, what a shock.

Wasn’t it Nero who played the violin while Rome burned?

We have Joe vacationing while the world is falling apart.

Does he really believe that we are not more than a few steps from WW III ?

Maybe Delaware is his safe zone.  But as President you do not get a safe zone.  

You want to be the leader of the free world? 

Well, then act like it.  This is not the time for days of no agenda, work days that end at dinner time and weekends away.

Imagine if Zelensky acted in this manner?  Right now, the Ukraine would have already been taken over by Russia.

While I relish my time in my writer’s nook, I cannot totally escape what is going on in our world. 

I wish I could.

The fact that when I leave that corner and my home (which is also a safe zone), I am still reminded of COVID, inflation, over $50-$60 to fill up a tank of gas and fear that Russia who now has control of one and working on a second nuclear power plants cannot be ignored.

The people of the Ukraine have no safe zone thanks to one lunatic. 

We here in the U.S. are losing our safe zones as illegal immigrants cross our border each day with no repercussions. 

What a sorry state of affairs we are dealing with thanks to our puppet of a president and administration.

Shouldn’t he be embarrassed that by purchasing Russian oil we are financing this fiasco?

Dear God even Dems are saying stop buying Russian oil.  But I do not think the solution is buying oil from Iran or Saudi Arabia.

Open up OUR damn pipelines.

As much as I do not like how much I am paying at the gas pump, I would pay more if it would help the Ukrainians in their quest to stay free.

And let’s speed up the process and let them join NATO.

And just as we have heard, watch out, next China will be going after Taiwan.

If Russia and China join forces, we are all screwed.

GOD WATCH OVER AND BLESS AMERICA!

Maybe that’s why right now on this Sunday morning, I am going to sit in my writers nook/safe zone just a few minutes longer.

I will face what is going on in the world in a few minutes but just for now, I will wrap myself in my words, thoughts and banned books (Dr, Seuss).

The rest of the day will come soon enough.

See you next week.