Our Life from a Dog’s Life

For several years now, I have been writing biweekly articles for this website knowing full well that I have not devoted an article to one very important topic:  Namely, dogs.  That omission has not been due to any disrespect for the canine race.  Quite to the contrary, it has been because of my great appreciation for all they have given to the human race.  How can any writer do justice to those contributions in only 500 to 600 words?

If I were to write an article worthy of dogs' contributions, I would have to mention that the canine trail stretches back into prehistoric times, where it intersects with early humans, thus keeping today's evolutionary biologists speculating about different scenarios.  I might list the variety of occupations dogs have specialized in:  watchdogs, hunting assistants, bloodhounds, rescue dogs, seeing-eye dogs, visitors to the lonely in hospitals and retirement homes, and plain old house companions.  But if I made such a list, someone would know of yet another role and catch my omission.

Because the articles on this website try to touch upon matters related to reading, any dog-article would need to mention some of the countless occasions on which dog-lovers have set pen to paper.  Would I mention the modern classic by animal behaviorist Konrad Lorenz titled Man Meets Dog?  Or the noteworthy but almost forgotten essays of E. B. White?  Or would I instead mention some more popular fare adaptable into a movie, such as Marley & Me, the humorous adventures of one dog owner?  There's even a book by a Nobel Prize winner, John Steinbeck's light fare Travels with Charley.

I would also need to mention the cartoons that have apparently been inspired by dogs' instinctive love of play.  Such as the never-ending stream of talking dogs in The New Yorker's cartoons.  Or the very durable ones by James Thurber -- simple but expressive line-drawings.

With so much to give me pause, why have I now at last set pen to paper with this article?  It is because I stumbled upon what is perhaps the highest compliment ever paid to dogs (even if there is a bit of irony about this particular dog virtue).  The spiritual writer Karen Armstrong, contrasting humans to dogs, wrote:  "While dogs, as far as we know, do not worry about the canine condition or agonize about their mortality, humans fall very easily into despair if we don't find some significance in our lives."

Her statement goes even deeper than the common observation that dogs do not stew over the day's events or worry about tomorrow.  (What a relief for a dog owner who returns home exhausted from a hard day!)  Armstrong's observation goes to the matter of the meaning of life, something humans very much need to search for but can never be absolutely certain about. Ironically, it is because dogs do not possess that human need that they can lightheartedly give meaning to our own lives.

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Have you or your family ever had a dog?  Name something it contributed to your life.

(The Armstrong quote is from her article "Think Again: God" in Foreign Policy, Nov./Dec. 2009.)
(The photo of two dogs is by José Carlos Cortizo Pérez from Fuenlabrada, Spain.  That of the dog with sunglasses
 is by Chiniman123. Both are used under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike licenses.)