Can They Take Away the Flowers?

Filling water buckets for each pasture, I am lost in thought for our country and how removed from nature most folks have become. Watering the horses was once a simple, daily routine shared by almost everyone. Look around at older homes - while you still can. Do you see old, tall garages behind some of those houses? Most likely they were originally used to house the family horse. Today, restrictive laws regulate the number of animals we can have period. "Horses?", "What?" is what most legislators would say. Indeed, we are living in very different times than those of our forefathers.

Is progress always a good thing? When President Obama speaks of Americans needing to "tighten our belts" and driving more responsible vehicles, is he speaking for you and me? Is he speaking for the animal people? Does anyone in Congress know that a smart car can't pull a horse trailer (or haul dog crates) and that an entire way of life is dependent on inexpensive gasoline? Do they care? I'm guessing the answer is "No. We do not."

Walking back to the pump for another fill of water, I see a stand of poppies growing from an old manure pile. They are ruby red and brilliant. The beauty my eyes seek has nothing to do with hip and trendy. I do not wish to shop at Bloomingdales nor do I care what shoes are currently vogue and, although I have nothing against tennis, basketball or other sports featuring a ball, my idea of recreational fun has nothing to do with asphalt. All I want is the life that I have been blessed with. "Will it last?," I ask myself. With a certain sadness, I hear the answer - "probably not."

I think of World War II and all of the people like me, the ones who fought and struggled to preserve their animals and the animal way of life in spite of the fact that there was no money and food shortages often caused them to act in desperation. That we still have Welsh Ponies and Doberman Pinschers (and many other breeds of animals) is testimony to the success of those hallowed breeders of our past. But current times are different - we are so "advanced" as a civilization now. We have virtual worlds to occupy our time. In places like "Half Life" we can raise dogs and flowers without worry for responsible puppy buyers, cruelty to animals, skyrocketing food and gas prices... and political correctness. In a virtual world we can ride horses and hire someone else to muck their stalls. We can buy a designer dog and have someone else train it but will the experiences be the same? How could they be? A virtual world is just that - "Virtually real" ...almost real...

......not real at all.

Walking to the fence, I stoop down to smell the sweet, spicy scent of a little pink flower. Standing back up I notice my gelding Wings has come to the fence for a visit. Crawling over the fence, I reach my arms out for the warm embrace of his muscular neck that pushes against me. He hangs his head over my shoulder and I push my face into his mane inhaling the heavenly scent of horses. The experience is intoxicating. In our modern, real world it is rare for someone to have this experience.

In a virtual world, it is impossible.

Will the future have dogs and horses? Will there be flowers? Real ones that you can touch and smell? If our governing bodies make laws against how much land we can own, how many dogs we can have, how much gas we can use.. and if they dictate whether or not we can use our animals to create new ones - will our human experience be forever truncated?

Can they really take away our flowers?