Never ask 8 kids what kind of ice-cream you should buy!

Instead buy Neapolitan, that way at least most of them will find something to like.  Alternatively buy a gallon of vanilla and two liters of root beer. Pull out the punch dish and special cups, and make root beer floats. That way everyone will be happy.

© words by Dan DeMarle 2017

There are no holes in the blue bottle, reflections making mirages.

2/1/17 words and pictures by Dan DeMarle 2017

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People think of Democracy as a solid construct reinforced with steel and concrete. Like a large monolith impervious like stone. In reality, Democracy is an idea planted in fertile soil, like a seed over 2000 years ago.   It thrived briefly then, but then the plant faded. A  seed of that plant was found and replanted over 200 years ago on this continent. It found fertile soil, but like any plant, time changes things.  There are periods of flood and drought. There are times of pestilence and disease.  There are times it grows with over abundance, and then times it must be cut back and pruned, as it has grown into shadows or into shapes that threaten to topple the plant as it leans to far in one direction or another.  Democracy unlike stone is a living, breathing thing.  You can not leave it unprotected and it must be watered and nourished. While it once grew with abandon, the soil around it, the water it uses, and the air around it, all change over time.  Even the people around it change over time. Some generations over water, some cut of limbs, and some even attempt to burn it back at times.  You are now the gardener, you have ignored it for some time, and thought merely watering it every four years was enough.  You now see it is threatened. What will you do?

1/1/17

© words and pictures by Dan DeMarle 2017