Rodeo not the best part of the day

The rodeo began with the "Queen" of the rodeo riding around with an American flag, followed by the singing of “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” (to the tune of God Save the Queen), the national anthem, and a prayer invoking both Jesus and God to help us save "freedom." Then we saw a young woman fall off her horse, a calf be rendered lame after it was slammed to the ground, a young man do what will no doubt be lasting damage to his spine, several men dragged by horses a considerable distance, and finally one young man suffer a concussion from being kicked in the head by the horse he fell off. After he tried to stand up and could not, while the announcer made a joke about the young man thinking he was in Chicago, we decided to leave.

The best part of the day was a couple of hours I spent by the Deschutes River while Sue was painting: I've never seen so many singing birds. It was a symphony of birdsong and falling waters, a lush shiny glorious clear-sky day (see extra), and peace, peace, peace. Not one other human being for the whole two hours. It is possible, sitting on a stone by that river, to believe the planet will go on and on being beautiful like this.