Wow!
What a great weekend we just had!
Cinco de Mayo — I love Mexican fare!
Kentucky Derby — Mint Juleps for everyone!
And, the very same day, Saturday May 5, it was World Naked Gardening Day. Scoff if you must; tisk, tisk, if you’re so inclined . . . it was a nice, warm, sunny day to get out in the yard and get some sunshine on the under-exposed, pasty white skin which has been covered up since October. Vitamin D via sunshine and in the au naturale is a good way to go.
Me? I didn’t have Mexican food, didn’t watch the Derby and just my feet experienced gardening naked. Yet, I do have to admit it was super awesome walking around the yard doing gardening stuff with bare feet. (I know that’s kinda’ risque for some of you Puritans out there, but I have a need to push things to the limit!)

* * *

Oh, let me see . . . at the end of April, I penned a “gem” of a Don’t Rush Me headlined, “Life, Liberty and Freedom.” I talked of a number of things in that column, one was about an area gym who advertised their Fox News Free Zone. From that column, I received this e-mail.

Don, I read your recent column in the published edition of The Citizen. One item in particular really piqued my interest, that being the gym advertising a “Fox News Free Zone”. That particular tactic may entice people to choose their gym over other gyms they could go to. However, someone forgot to do their research. Based on the Presidential election results of 2016 in Atlas and Brandon townships, they have likely alienated two-thirds of their potential customers.  They have every right in this country to make this decision for their business. However, I also have every right to never step foot in it. — John D.

Well, John D., you do have a point. I just went to the Oakland County Clerk’s website and checked by community around the Orion Township gym. Every precinct in Addison Township, in Clarkston, in Independence Township, in Oxford Township and, yup, even in Orion Township favored Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton for President of these here United States. My calculator is on the fritz or I would have given the actual vote tally, but trust me, Hillary did not have the local vote. Good, bad or indifferent, marketing Fox News Free Zone may limit the gym’s potential for continued success (which is what I want — all local businesses to succeed).
Alas, no one asked me, so maybe I should keep my gub shut and my opinions to myself.

* * *

Last week, right here in the hallowed halls of Don’t Rushmedon, I coerced and/or forced my very own son to sweat and toil — to write my column for me. (Isn’t that why we have kids anyway . . . to lessen our own work burdens?)

I did give him (and, “him” has a name and it is Sean) credit for said column, headlined, “So, another Rush asks, where has ‘community’ gone?”
Who woulda’ thunk it, but Young Master Sean Rush, a senior in high school, received some fan mail! Readers responded with lots of “well dones” and “good jobs.” There was one, “Good show! Definitely the son of Don.”
From across the pond (nope, not Walters Lake, rather across the Atlantic Ocean), reader Alys commented, “Great column Mr Rush. Well written…cogent…Heartening too, to discover a thoughtful and concerned millennial. Yes, I am making a sweeping generalisation but it I can also be rare on this side of The Pond. Look forward to reading some more!”

From another reader, “Sean – Thanks so much for your column. I so enjoyed reading your input and insight. I am a colleague of your dad from both CHS and CMU. You are blessed to have such an amazing father with the ability and willingness to share the public forum. You give me continued hope for the future. Many condemn millinneals as a lost generation. I don’t believe that faulty assessment. Appreciate your father and go forth with your own opinions. Live long and prosper my friend!” — Bill.

Thank you readers for, well, reading and for the words you shared with my son. He is his own man, with his own opinions on the world and a heck of a lot smarter than his old man. He has a good heart and has a way of cutting through the crud to examine issues at hand.
Hmm?
Now that I think about it, truth be told, as his assignment was a job shadow operation for school, I was kinda’ sorta hoping someone would have delivered the figurative chin music with dissenting opinions, like you guys do me. That would have been a truer representation of what happens when you express an opinion in America. (Or, maybe he is that good, all agree with him and I should watch my back?)
Send your comments, thoughts and suggestions to DontRushDon@gmail.com

  don rush, don’t rush me, fox news, World Naked Gardening Day