Cousin Rufus on Feelings

Dear Cousin Cletus,

Hain’t it great spring is peekin’ ‘round the corner? The tomato plants on mah windowsill is about ready to put in the ground.

Mah grandson Harley asked me to come eat supper with ‘em one night last week. It’s always interestin’ to see how folks in the big city live. Course, they like to visit me in the holler, just to get away from the rat race they live in.

While ah wuz waitin’ for Harley’s wife to put supper on the table, Harley showed me a cartoon on his computer. It was a couple critters, one of them wuz Snoopy the dog, thinkin’ ‘bout how the world got so crazy. He said it started with bike helmets. People didn’t want to see folks get hurt. Next, ever’body took home a trophy, whether they did somethin’ or not. Ah guess the point wuz, people runnin’ thangs didn’t want anybody to feel hurt.

Ah think Snoopy got it right. ‘Member the days when you had to do somethin’ good and outstandin’ to get recognized at school? Like winnin’ the spellin’ bee or gettin’ the best grades in the class?

Harley’s wife says at their kids’ school, they give trophies at the end of the year, just for kids bein’ in choir. Whoever thought up such nonsense must have got dropped on they head when they wuz a baby.

Whut ah want to know is, how are we ‘posed to keep ever’body from feelin’ hurt? Cause stupid oughta hurt. If ah walk in the middle of the road and get hit by a car, ah don’t expect to sue the person whut hit me. Ah’m supposed to be smart enough to know not to be there in the first place. And if ah’m not smart enough to know, then one good whack ought teach me not to do that next time.

Granddaddy tole us you can’t fix stupid. Ah think we shore can learn from it once in a while.

That’s mah thoughts this week, Cletus. It’s shorely a different world than when we wuz little shavers. Y’ll come visit when the spring peepers come ‘round the pond.

Your cuz,

Rufus

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