Critical Issues Around the Globe and at Home in Doodle Land

February 23, 2019 by JoAnna 23 Comments

Today’s prompt for the SoCS is: “critic(al).” Use it any way you’d like. Have fun!

Thinking of this prompt, not planning mind you, but thinking, I’ve gotten into a somewhat serious mood. I ask whoever wants to be asked, what are the critical issues we face as a species, or as individual nations? How about climate change?

I was listening to the radio in my car yesterday – the local public radio station since I didn’t like the song on the oldies station – and they were talking about how the barrier islands on the east coast of the US would become uninhabitable in the next 30 to 100 years. That’s where most people I know go to the beach. A lot of people live there, not to mention animals, which I am mentioning. The ice at the poles is melting more rapidly than we thought. This is a critical issue. This is, shall we dare say, emergent.

A critical issue in the US is health care. I know plenty of hard working people, working over 40 hours a week to support families, who cannot afford health insurance because the premiums are ridiculously high. And I live in a state that chose not to expand medicaid which some of my friends are going to Raleigh to protest. I can’t leave the dogs that long which I’ll get to in a moment. But my point is that the lack of affordable health care is critical in my country. For some people, it truly is an emergency. A national emergency. Along with education, homelessness…

I know I’m dancing close to the edge of a political rant which I generally or maybe never do on my blog, but that is the risk adventure of venturing into the stream of consciousness.  But let me take another branch of the stream. Maybe a broader branch. Maybe the big, overall critical issue is that we, and by we, I mean the media and popular culture of our culture, oooh that was a little whirlpool, now I’m dizzy. Where was I? Maybe the critical issue is that we’re too critical of others who we believe are so different from us. Maybe we need to focus on our similarities, what we have in common, and solutions for the common good.

Okay, lest I continue into a rant, let me share a personal critical issue we’ve faced/are facing in our home. I’m somewhat in denial about it. A few weeks ago, we found out that our crazy coon hound Doodle has a mast cell tumor which is malignant. Blood work showed she also has kidney disease. The denial comes from the fact that while Doodle is at least 12 years old, she’s always had a lot of energy. She kinda still does, but has not been as crazy enthusiastic about her walks lately. A couple weeks ago, the tumor spread and swelled her whole right rump, and her right back leg swelled to twice its normal size. The vet said this is a sign it’s probably gone into her lymph system and surgery might not help. Plus she’s 12 and the kidney disease. He put her on prednisone which quickly alleviated the swelling so that now she looks normal. Then she became more obnoxious than usual because steroids can do that. She actually had tremors. So we cut back on the prednisone (cut the dosage in half), and she’s doing okay. We have to watch her closely. Maybe she has a few weeks or even a year. I’m still a little in denial because she’s still crazy-ish. I have been more prepared for our other dog, Marigold, to cross over the bridge because she is almost 17. But Marigold keeps on plodding along.

Well, this is a little bit of a bummer of a post. But Doodle is not currently “critical,” and we are spoiling her rotten. And that’s kinda fun. Dogs. Gotta love ’em. Cats too. They help us get through all the other critical issues.

Doodle when she wasn’t feeling good.

Doodle the Queen

For more information on SoCS, visit Linda at:

https://lindaghill.com/2019/02/22/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-feb-23-19/

Here are the rules:

1. Your post must be stream of consciousness writing, meaning no editing (typos can be fixed), and minimal planning on what you’re going to write.

2. Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be. One sentence – one thousand words. Fact, fiction, poetry – it doesn’t matter. Just let the words carry you along until you’re ready to stop.

3. I will post the prompt here on my blog every Friday, along with a reminder for you to join in. The prompt will be one random thing, but it will not be a subject. For instance, I will not say “Write about dogs”; the prompt will be more like, “Make your first sentence a question,” “Begin with the word ‘The,’” or will simply be a single word to get you started.

4. Ping back! It’s important, so that I and other people can come and read your post! For example, in your post you can write “This post is part of SoCS:” and then copy and paste the URL found in your address bar at the top of this post into yours. Your link will show up in my comments for everyone to see. The most recent pingbacks will be found at the top. NOTE: Pingbacks only work from WordPress sites. If you’re self-hosted or are participating from another host, such as Blogger, please leave a link to your post in the comments below.

5. Read at least one other person’s blog who has linked back their post. Even better, read all of them! If you’re the first person to link back, you can check back later or go to the previous week by following my category, “Stream of Consciousness Saturday,” which you’ll find below the “Like” button on my post.

6. Copy and paste the rules (if you’d like to) in your post. The more people who join in, the more new bloggers you’ll meet and the bigger your community will get!

7. As a suggestion, tag your post “SoCS” and/or “#SoCS” for more exposure and more views.

8. Have fun!