{"id":6280,"date":"2016-06-05T06:38:44","date_gmt":"2016-06-05T10:38:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=6280"},"modified":"2016-06-05T06:49:50","modified_gmt":"2016-06-05T10:49:50","slug":"something-new","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=6280","title":{"rendered":"something new"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IMG_5707\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Yesterday I did something I\u2019ve never done before. It was one of a possible 25 things\u2026<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Voted for a Republican.<\/li>\n
  2. Voted for a Democrat.<\/li>\n
  3. Ran for elected office.<\/li>\n
  4. Whitewater rafted on class V-VI rapids.<\/li>\n
  5. Flew to France by myself.<\/li>\n
  6. Ate a pickle.<\/li>\n
  7. Got thrown out of a Major League Baseball game.<\/li>\n
  8. Sang with a top 40 band in a nightclub.<\/li>\n
  9. Hung out with Derek and Julianne Hough.<\/li>\n
  10. Shook a sitting president\u2019s hand.<\/li>\n
  11. Lost my temper.<\/li>\n
  12. Got caught under a sinking sailboat.<\/li>\n
  13. Witnessed a boy hit on his bike.<\/li>\n
  14. Was on radio and TV.<\/li>\n
  15. Sat on the edge of the Rhein and the Thames.<\/li>\n
  16. Jumped off a cliff.<\/li>\n
  17. Emceed a hermit crab race.<\/li>\n
  18. Gave a speech.<\/li>\n
  19. Conducted a mediation.<\/li>\n
  20. Taught a class.<\/li>\n
  21. Wrestled a free t-shirt away from a group of ten year old boys.<\/li>\n
  22. Won at the blackjack table.<\/li>\n
  23. Cried.<\/li>\n
  24. Was judgmental.<\/li>\n
  25. Asked for forgiveness.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Ah, alas\u2026 while I have done all of the above (and some have been done or needed to do far more than once),<\/em> yesterday, for the first time, my family brought home a dog.<\/p>\n

    With such a choice, I realize anew that we are a divided nation in far too many ways \u2014 in this case: pro-dog vs. no dog. We are \u2014 in my sincerely strong opinion \u2014 so good at finding things to fight about. We can \u2014 in my also sincerely strong opinion \u2014 do better at that\u2026 at giving grace to one another, to hold the opinions they hold, even when different than \u201cmine.\u201d<\/p>\n

    I\u2019ve been told, no less, that what\u2019s so beautiful about a dog is that they are often far better than the rest of us at unconditional love. They\u2019re happy to see you. Our mood doesn\u2019t matter. The differences of opinion we hold don\u2019t matter. They are loyal. They love you no matter what. Differences and opinion and intellect and all the other earthly obstacles are removed.<\/p>\n

    So I’ll say what I\u2019ve learned with most of the new things in life \u2014 more than the 25 moments listed above\u2026 I look forward not to what I will teach this pup\u2026<\/p>\n

    But rather\u2026<\/p>\n

    \u2026 what she will teach me.<\/p>\n

    Respectfully (with a faint bark from a back room)\u2026<\/em>
    \nAR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Yesterday I did something I\u2019ve never done before. It was one of a possible 25 things\u2026 Voted for a Republican. Voted for a Democrat. Ran for elected office. Whitewater rafted on class V-VI rapids. Flew to France by myself. Ate a pickle. Got thrown out of a Major League Baseball game. Sang with a top … <\/p>\n

    Continue reading “something new”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6280"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6287,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6280\/revisions\/6287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}