A House Divided - Which way shall we go

Pick a divisive issue currently in the news. Write a two-part post in which you take on two personas and approach the topic from both sides. Bonus points for a creative format (roundtable discussion, debate transcript, etc.).

I do not do news at the moment. My Swiss mother-in-law always said the politicians do what they want to do in any case, and she is right. Our problem at the moment is where shall we go today. We could, of course, stay at home. Everything is now ready on the porch for relaxation, computer work, as well as reading a book. I even found a little matching table to put next to my sun bed for cups of tea and eatable goodies when reading. The discussion began.

“We could take a walk to the cemetery. It is not so far and easy to manage” Mr. Swiss said taking consideration of my walking problems.

I have walking problems? I have been in a training camp over the past week and if I had kilometre measures on my shoes, I am sure it would be record suspicious for a golden oldie. I decided we have seen enough dead people this week on our walks. 

“We could take a walk along the river” I suggested. We very seldom see a dead body floating in the river, not even dead fish, and I was thinking I might be able to take some photos of those ducks and swans that were not possible this week due to a dead battery in the camera.

After a heated discussion, we decided on the river. Yes, I won again. I wanted to go left at the bottom of the path, and Mr. Swiss decided right would be better, taking in consideration my physical state. It was not as far as turning left. Turning right meant a handy escape route back to home after an hour and turning left would add kilometres to the journey, although I pointed out that there would be sheep in the fields to photograph and more ducks. To prove it, here is my first picture of a mallard duck.

“But if we turn left we could take the stairs up the embankment and walk home from there.”

Mr. Swiss had a worried look on his face. “There are many stairs, a steep climb and we would be home earlier.”

I found this argument to be somewhat contra productive, but I decided if we discuss the matter further, we will never begin our march. At the moment I am writing on the porch on one of these oh-so-comfortable chairs, waiting for the signal to begin. I was thinking of equipping Mr. Swiss with a whistle or flag to mark the starting time. First of all I have to dress for the occasion. My home dress is not suitable for lengthy exhausting walks. I need my super walking shoes and jeans and my camera has to be ready for me. Eventually we set off and we discovered that there was more than a nip in air, more like icicles, but we continued undaunted. 

We arrived at the river bank and turned to the right. After three minutes Mr. Swiss decided we should have turned left and climbed the many stairs and we would be quicker at home as temperatures were sinking quickly and the sun had decided to hide behind a cloud. Who am I to disagree, so I joined Mr. Swiss on the return walk to the stairs. On the way I was taking a few photos.

“Look, swans” said Mr. Swiss, and so I aimed my camera to take then Pulitzer prize picture of the year.¨

“No, you should move to where I am, there is a gap in the branches of the tree where you can take a good photo.”

He was right of course, the problem being that the swans were not waiting for me and were doing swan stuff by dipping their heads in the river and probably sifting through the edible details of the water. We then reached the famous stairs and Mr. Swiss was half way up when I took the first stair. Mainly because I wanted to take a photo of the stairs to prove I did it. 

This is the top half of the infamous stairs. The figure in the distant on the left at the top is yes, Mr. Swiss. He got there before I did, but he can walk faster than I can. It was time go homewards. Another walk completed and I survived, although I did have cold ears and nose. I decided that a nice woolly hat would be suitable for such future marathons.

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Walking is healthy, so they tell me

Think of a time you let something slide, only for it to eat away at you later. Tell us how you’d fix it today.

Over the past couple of years I let my walking abilities slide to the extent that my legs decided it was time to do something about it, otherwise we would have problems.

“Hey Angloswiss brain, we are getting rusty, out of order. Our joints hurt, we get tired too quickly, so do something about it. Ask Mr. Swiss to take you with him on his afternoon jogging sprees.”

“I’ll think about it legs, but he doesn’t jog, he walks at a steady tempo.”

“Better than sitting at a computer writing daily prompts which were daily two years ago. Out in the fresh air, do something.”

“Can I take my camera with me?”

“No problem. I asked the arms and they said they would hold the camera for you, so let’s go.”

After that conversation with a couple of my limbs I decided the time was ripe. Spring is here, almost, the sun is shining, it is t-shirt time and the crocus are flowering. There was one small problem. Mr. Swiss was delighted to have a companion on his keep fit walks, but there was a slight misunderstanding. He does it without the camera and I do it with, meaning a quick stop in between to take a prize winning photo. 

Two days ago, we did our first walk, which was more or less a success, although I did feel a little tired afterwards.

“Angloswiss, we were on our last muscles when we arrived home, but it can only get better.”

“Shhh legs, don’t tell them such things, I am practicing, it will take a time but we will soon be bionic.”

By the way the photo is from an ancient tree in the local cemetery. I think they planted the tree before they buried the first victims. Anyhow to continue, I completed my second walk yesterday with Mr. Swiss. He was a happy walker for a certain reason. I took my camera with me, but changed the battery before I left to be sure that it had enough power to continue taking photos. On my first walk I took forty photos. This time the route was set for along the river and I had dreams of duck and swan photos, with some cows and sheep on the side pastures. Unfortunately the second battery I inserted into the camera was not charged, it was dead and so my Pulitzer photography prize dreams were killed as soon as I saw the first duck. Mr. Swiss did not seem to mind for some strange reason. Anyhow we continued our walking marathon along the river without photos. We got to a point where we could make a right turn back to civilisation, or continue. He decided for civilisation and I was not sad. My legs were beginning to lose their attachment to their feet, but I ignored my problems. It was then Mr. Swiss decided to cross the road which again led to the cemetery. By this time I did have a sort of death wish, but I managed to hold on somehow.

Cemeteries are quite useful for walks. They have benches placed in strategic places to sit and do some gravestone watching and so we sat. It was then I realised that the body shaped benches had been replaced by something more modern which had no support for the back. I leaned back and found that there was a stone wall behind the bench, but too far away to rest on. I made a few negative comments about these new expensive modern benches and Mr. Swiss said there is one of the older benches five graves to the right. I managed to creep to this body friendly bench and spent some relaxing moments there.

We then departed for home. I was not sad as I was feeling a little exhausted (half dead), but we arrived safe and sound. Mr. Swiss found that it “does you good” to go walking regularly, but perhaps not so far and so long each time. I agreed whole heartedly with this suggestion. 

Today was a day of rest. The plumber arrived to do a few small corrective jobs on the toilet and the sink. I decided instead of a brisk fresh walk in the country, I would clear some Autumn leaves from the garden. It seemed that the Autumn leaves had reproduced themselves on the ground, but after my walking training this was no problem. Our garden container is now filled to the brim with the dead remains of last year’s trees and my back aches. Mr. Swiss helped to sweep them together. Unfortunately there was a fresh Spring wind blowing, so our neat piles of leaves were often demolished which caused a few profanities to be uttered.

Eventually we were finished, the plumber left us and the telephone rang. It was our gardener who informed that tomorrow morning he would arrive with his merry men at 7.30 in the morning to prepare our garden. I somehow had a strange thought that we could have spared the Autumn leaf removal, but we now have a neat and tidy garden. I even saw a few fire bugs walking around, so we are now ready. And now one last photo taken on my walk at the cemetery when I had a fully operational camera.

I saw this ornament on a grave and decided it was worth a photo.

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