“STUPID”also gets tossed around with the ball on the tennis court. I’m not alone in its usage.

 What does it mean exactly? The definition that comes immediately to my mind is, behaving like a clod. My Oxford dictionary gets more specific… not clever; slow at learning and understanding; in a state of stupor. I only admit to the latter. I’m often doing one thing and thinking another with results that appear, well, yes, stupid.

Though perhaps appropriate at times, this is not a nice word. I plan to delete it from my vocabulary, if not my actions. In the 1700s Alexander Pope* wrote, “To err is human….".I am taking his words to heart. “Oh Suzy, how could you be so human?”

 *Alexander Pope 1688-1744. Full quote: TO ERR IS HUMAN, TO FORGIVE DIVINE.
 

An old song comes to mind, a song that would never make it in todays's world where we sing of broken hearts and sex. I still remember the lyrics

"Are the stars out tonight? I don‚t know if it's cloudy or bright For I only have eyes for you....."

 A lifetime lies ahead for those young lovers. Will they deliver on all this look of love seems to promise? I catch the eye of the man at my table, the one that's been in my life for almost 50 years. I reach for his hand. It can happen.
 

And yet, as the fruit ripens on my trees, I am openly hostile to the wild creatures who would take all those mouth watering morsels for themselves. It's a gentle skirmish really, our vying for this prize. I net the trees, they hone their cunning. Occasionally they win. Faced with a barren tree, and another year of waiting for this natural phenomena to happen again, I seriously think about getting a gun and using it.

Though the resident rabbit is admittedly adorable, especially at Easter, he eats everything leafy. I thwart him with temporary fencing around those things newly planted, his favorite gustatory experience. When he hops into view, I yell at him while chasing him into hiding. I put out the word to the coyotes and bobcats, TASTY RABBIT HERE. I wait and hope for his demise.

The caterpillars eating the buds of my geraniums haven't a chance. How could they destroy those nascent blossoms, it's unthinkable! Without a qualm, I spray them with environmentally acceptable death. Occasionally I hunt them with a magnifying glass, and when finding them, wrap them in a leaf and squish them between my fingers. Please don't tell my grandchildren. I am, they think, a gentle soul who would never hurt anything. I think so too, but obviously it's not true.