Arts, Crafts, Music, & Events of Breckinridge County Issue 8, January 2016 | Page 32

have a choice, bluegrass, country, and old mountain ballads are my
favorites. So, after this paragraph, you should get the idea what I mean
by being country and liking rustic things.
I also like mules for many other reasons. One of which is that mules
are pretty stubborn and settled in their ways. You can’t change their
minds until they are ready to change them on their own. I am pretty
much planted down in solid soil on my ways of doing also. Some women
move furniture over and over, not me, this old girl wants to come home
and find her bed where it is supposed to be, the couch where I sat
yesterday, and the milk on the bottom shelf where it has always been. I
put those things where I like them and there ain’t (yes, I know there isn’t
any such word as ain’t and that it is not proper grammar, but sometimes
only ain’t will fit the bill) any reason to move them that I can see or
second guess myself now. Mules are like that too, if they plowed the
same field two days in a row before, that is the field they want to head
off to plow the next day. In the mules’ way of thinking, that field ought to
be good enough to plow today too. Mules and I don’t take to changes
much unless we get used to the idea first and come up with the idea
ourselves.
I am also one of those odd people that find incredible beauty in mules.
I know most women and plenty of men think mules are ugly, big- eared,
funny creatures. But, to me, two matching mules in fancy gear and curry
combed are right pretty beasts. I have mule paintings in my home.
However, they are not some fancy artwork that a guy painted a nose over
here and an ear over there. My mules on my walls look like the ones you
find out in a field or a barn. I want to understand my art, thank you
kindly. I want no art that I have to like because someone else declared it
brilliant, enlightening, the rage this year, matches the newest paint color,