I'm Still Here

Today's health update and musical interlude is brought to you by Clio Bluestocking, who knows there's nothing quite like seeing an aging diva belt out her gritty determination to survive to inspire an old dog on her last legs. Yep, this one nicely captures the mood here in Roxie's World, as I continue to defy my vet's prediction that I would be sinking my teeth into the ankle of the big postman in the sky by now. Sing it, Shirley:



Yeah, I'm still here, kids, but let's not sugarcoat it. I may be taking my sweet time and going rather gently into that good night, but it does begin to feel that I am going. The moms hover around me, carrying me tenderly from place to place, and feel me shrinking in their loving hands. I eat, but I am wasting away. They search my eyes for signs of discomfort. I whimper a little from time to time, but usually that just means I have gotten stuck in a corner or in an awkward position. Once upon a time I leaped and raced around a ridiculously large back yard. No squirrel dared to cross my path. Now my exercise is pulling myself around in circles with my front paws. I don't get anywhere, but my body remembers what it was to be strong and swift, agile and fierce.

It's a beautiful day in Roxie's World, my darlings. Moose went to the farmer's market this morning and came home with strawberries so sweet they made her think of Norway. She whipped up a mess of scrambled eggs with chipotle goat cheese, and Goose saved the last, best bites for me. The air is soft and the sky too clear to keep my typist sitting in a chair thinking about death or the latest insult the Obama administration has aimed at the LGBT community.

I am sending the moms on a long walk. If you need to stoke your outrage about the Justice department's brief in support of the Defense of Marriage Act, then head over to Pam's House Blend, which is doing its usual thorough job of reporting on the issue and calling the administration to account for its manifest failure to be the Fierce Advocate the president declared himself to be. Tenured Radical is less up in arms over the brief than a lot of pro-LGBT analysts have been. She thinks it might not be such a bad idea if DOMA ends up being resolved legislatively rather than judicially, given the uneven outcomes that have resulted from American courts intervening to overturn discriminatory laws on, for example, school segregation and abortion. It's a long, complex piece, hard to summarize but well worth reading and pondering. TR pointed us toward a thoughtful reaction from law prof Nan Hunter at Hunter for Justice. Hunter also thinks Congress is where the Obama administration will be obliged to make good on its promise to repeal DOMA, so she also isn't especially surprised or upset to see the administration defending the law in court -- because that is what government lawyers almost always do. (John Aravosis points out a number of exceptions to that rule here.)

There is no outrage in Roxie's World today, beloveds. Only tenderness. And strawberries. And a trail that an old dog's worn-out legs still remember. Peace out.