It’s Election Day in Juneau. Aki, who didn’t vote, trots down a mountain meadow trail with an “I exercised by right to vote” sticker on her head. It seems to have made her intolerant. When I stop to photograph mushrooms on a tree trunk, she whines. When I try to lead her onto the Treadwell Ditch Trail, she hesitates. When I try to engage her in a discussion about beauty, the little dog looks bored. I ignore her mood and point to a wall of dead-white hemlock snags and say, “Bugs, rain, and wind have stripped these old trees bare and they still have more beauty than the live ones that surround them.” Aki turns away, not prepared to admit that when alive, the trees’ sparse foliage hid their lovely shapes.