Dodge City Calls

Matt Dillon and the Crew

It is the transition day, the 24 hours suspended between last week and next, the day we face what got away from us over the past 6 days, and establish what the upcoming 6 days will accomplish. The list for the coming week will of course be extremely ambitious because for the most part we are slow learners. Though we only got through half the items on last week’s “to do” we will create a calendar for the coming week that includes all of the leftovers and a brand new collection of “musts”, many of which will get pushed to weeks in the future, so that by the end of the summer our lists will still contain a few items from June, several from July, and we will barely have started on August. I want to be Matt Dillon, the Marshall, not the actor. He didn’t make lists. He spent his days drinking coffee in the front office of the jail until there was a disturbance in the street, a frequent, almost chronic occurrence. He was never overwhelmed by the pace or the pressure. He wore the same outfit everyday, his horse was always in working order, the menu at the saloon was limited to steak at night and eggs in the morning, and he loved Miss Kitty but the idea of marriage never came up, because after all, he was Matt Dillon. And if someone shot at him, he never questioned what to do. He always shot back.