It’s Friday the Thirteenth in the remarkable year of 2020. What could possibly go wrong?
Louisiana
So for me, Friday the Thirteenth started at three in the morning. We are rehabilitating a dog named Lou (…me and you and a dog named Lou – not quite right). Lou is short for Louisiana, where Lou came from. My wife Jenn was part of a Lost Pet Recovery (LPR) rescue mission to save Lou, who was found in a parking lot at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. Lou had two broken legs, and a broken hip as well. The LPR team brought him back to Columbus, where the folks at OSU repaired one leg and the hip. The other leg is healing, but we’ll have to see whether it will ultimately require surgical repair.
Lou needs a lot of rehabilitation: time to recover from the surgeries, regain strength, get over heartworms, and learn how to be a “good dog”. The hard part is that Lou is only a year and a half old, still a puppy. But he can’t run and play. There’s too much healing to go. So Lou has to spend a lot of “quiet” time, not a puppy kind of thing. The drugs he takes help, but it still is hard on him. He sees our other dogs, who come to the door. Our Lab Atticus will even bring toys. But Lou can’t play yet, and he gets frustrated. Can’t blame him.
The meds work for a while, but ultimately wear off. And if that’s at three in the morning, then Lou’s rolling. It’s time for a “rehab” walk (getting longer all the time), some food, and some hard persuasion to try to get Lou back into Jenn’s office, now Lou’s rehab facility. Jenn has done most of the “night duty”; but from time to time I’ll take that “way too early” shift.
Dog Rules
We’ve had Lou for about a month. He’s not a permanent addition – we are a three-dog family already. Four would require too much space, inside and out; more then we’ve got. But we can get Lou ready for his “final family”. And we’ve probably got another month or so to go before Lou’s ready for adoption. He will be around for the rest of the Trump Administration.
You knew there had to be a political “hook” to this story. Here on Friday the Thirteenth, we are teaching Lou to be a good dog. He’s learning to behave, to play, and what’s allowed and not. He can chew up his “rope”, and he can tear into his chew toys. But he got in trouble for eating the rug, and the floor molding, and the orthopedic bed we picked up for him. He’s learning – and now he can even hang out in his crate in the family room with the rest of us from time to time. But all “good” dogs have to learn the norms, the rules. It’s what we do with puppies, and with the kids we teach in school.
Life Rules
But I guess someone failed to teach the President of the United States how to be a “good” person. The hardest part of running for office is losing. It tests character. As a high school coach for forty years, I knew it was part of my job to teach kids how to lose as well as how to win. We put our best efforts, our hearts, and years of hard work into trying to achieve our goals. And there were times when we did it all, and achieved what we set out to do. But there were also times, probably more of them, that we fell short. And as the coach, the role model, it was my job to demonstrate what the “norm” was for dealing with loss.
There is a time for deep disappointment, for frustration, and for emotion. But that time is not in public, and it’s not towards your opponent. After a loss, it’s time to congratulate the winner, and take responsibility for your own actions. Blaming others, opponents, officials, or other factors out of your control, doesn’t change the result. So, as I told my teams every time it happened: show class. Demonstrate how to lose with grace. Congratulate the winners; walk over and shake their hands. Compliment them for a hard fought win. My coaches and I did the same.
I knew what my job was, win or lose: to act with class, as a representative of the school, and as a role model for the athletes on my team. The greatest lesson wasn’t in achieving the goal. It was in learning how to live with failure or victory in life.
Missing Lesson
I listened to a reporter yesterday going to great lengths. She was trying to explain how the “President’s men” were trying to convince the President that he had to leave office, but didn’t have to accept defeat in the polls. Donald Trump acts as if he “owns” the Presidency and the White House. He doesn’t. He serves at the pleasure of “We the People of the United States”. But it seems that Donald Trump has decided his role as the “aggrieved victim” of the 2020 election will support his “post Presidency”: politically and more important, financially.
Lou is learning what’s expected of a “good dog”. Someday he’s going to be a great, lovable, energetic friend for some family. He’ll always bear the scars of Baton Rouge, but he’ll be an even better dog for it.
The President could learn from Lou, or from our high school teams. His greatest goal should be the “good” of the United States. He can fight in court for votes if he wants, but denying Biden the information and resources to prepare for his Presidency is just selfish.
Former President Obama described the situation yesterday. He said that Trump’s selfishness would ultimately not just hurt Joe Biden.
It will hurt American Democracy.
