Three Beautiful Things 07-12-2025: Life with Gibbs, *Lonesome Dove* and Self-Examination, Tofu is Back

1.  I attribute Gibbs' readiness to bark at people walking by, delivery people coming to our porch,  Copper on the other side of the pet gate, neighborhood dogs on the other sides of our back yard, and sometimes just at a breeze bending grass not to a character flaw, but to a virtue. He's earnest. In his own Maltese-Shih Tzu way, he's acting as a service dog, barking warnings. 

I do my best to as soon as I can to discourage Gibbs from barking too long in the back yard.

Recently, he's been remarkably cooperative with my efforts. 

I never yell at Gibbs and if I stand on the porch and, in a conversational voice, call his name, lately he's been really good about coming to me.

It helps that I'm also offering him Swiss cheese. 

I've been on a Swiss cheese jag for a few weeks.

Gibbs has joined me. 

Lately, he'd rather eat a few small pieces of Swiss cheese in the kitchen than bark his brains out in the back yard. 

2. One thing I'm experiencing while reading Lonesome Dove relates to Socrates' dictum that "the unexamined life is not worth living." 

This novel is moving me to self-examination in an unexpected way, through the observations and thoughts of Lorena Wood, who, for much of the Part I of this book, has been the prostitute at the Dry Bean Saloon.

Lorena is very perceptive, especially when it comes to the character weaknesses of men in general, but of one man in particular, Jake Spoon. 

Her observations have little to do with sex, but much more to do with immaturity, dependence, broken promises, flattery, manipulation through deception, and other similar qualities that Jake Spoon manifests, but so do other men in this story. 

Lorena has moved me to examine similar qualities in myself, especially as I reflect on my past and what I've done as I've aged to at least try to mature, be more independent, keep my word, eschew manipulation, and, generally be a more balanced and consistently kinder and more reliable person. 

When I started reading this book, I wasn't expecting to be putting it down as often as I do to have quiet periods of self-examination, but that's one of the very welcome effects Lonesome Dove is having on me. 

3. For the first time in months, tonight the stir fry I fixed in the wok included tofu. I've been enjoying tofu for about forty years now and I really don't know why I'd gone so long without having purchased and cooked it before tonight -- especially because it's really good for me and my kidney health.