Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

I benefited greatly from being incommunicado at the cabin.  My cell phone doesn't work there, so, though in an emergency I have a land line, the news apps and deluge of emails that have nothing to do with me really were stacking up quietly.  There was one thing I missed:  the Belmont Stakes.  Three days after it was run I heard from my son, who's cell phone did work, that Justified had won the Triple Crown, and I was thrilled.  As I child I devoured the Black Stallion books, Margaurete Henry's horse stories and many others, and growing up mainly in Virginia I was fascinated by horses.  Yesterday my husband found the You Tube video of the race, and at the end I had tears in my eyes.  I'm not rider, I'm just an admirer of horses.  We had a pony for the kids for a few years, then a horse for seven years.  I loved her, but I didn't ride.  I broke the ice in her water in the winter, shoved manure, brushed her, treated her with oats, and brought her back when she escaped our corral.  She was wonderfully good natured, and gentle with our kids.  Deborah Butterfield's horse sculptures bring tears to my eyes.  Horses are social animals, but they are usually imprisoned and isolated, which is a terrible thing to behold.  Justified will have plenty of social cache and fields to run in, but he's one of the lucky few.  My hat's off to his great heart and effort and sheer beauty of his body.