Dogs Are People Too

This is extremely ironic. First, a little back story. I sat down with the idea for this blog; I was going to write about how awesome all dogs were, and how I loved dogs, and how they were amazing. I got three or four paragraphs down, then, extremely drowsy, I went off to my backyard to take a nap in the sun on my picnic table. I was out there for nearly an hour, and the entire time, save for a few seconds here or there, the next door neighbor dogs wouldn't stop barking. And yipping. And howling. And baying. Now, I have nothing against my next door neighbors; their dogs, however, are stupid. They are small annoying little creatures who bark at anything that moves, even their own tails. This blog has turned from a praise of the entire canine family into a smack-talk on certain types of dogs, and uplifting comments about others. And so it begins.

[Most dogs are] Freakin' Awesome.

Not really any other way to describe dogs. I mean, sure--there are the few breeds of dogs that are pretty nasty and will attack and maul you on sight, but for the most part they are legit. I have had a near-maul experience with a dog, but I shall go on to that later--It wasn't really so bad now that I look back on it. There also the small rat-dogs which really can't be considered dogs, but are still really cute.

I don't think I have ever actually been asked if I am a "cat person" or a "dog person" but, if I, hypothetically, were asked this age-old question, I would probably answer "dog person". Now, I really don't see anything wrong with cats. Cats got attitude, and I respect that. I like to pet them and hear them purr, have them sit on my lap and keep me warm, and let them rub their forehead pheromones all over me as they mark me as their territory and warn other cats to stay away from my amazingly awesome petting-appendages. But cats lack something that dogs don't. Cats don't have as much personality as dogs. "WAIT!" you might say, "But how can animals have personalities?!?!?" Trust me, they can. It just feels wrong calling it a "doginality" or a "catinality" or a "cowinality" or even "tyrannosaurusrexanlity", so I'll just refer to it as a personality. I have seen maybe three different types of personalities in cats. Playful, vicious, and lazy. Dogs, however--wow, I can't even begin to describe all of the different personalities that I have seen.

My dog, for instance, is in different moods all the time, so it is kind of hard to pin him on one personality; but, if I were forced to pin him on one personality, I would pin him as personable. He loves to meet new people and play with them and jump around them, and get fed by them, and get petted by them--and at the end of a long day, he will just sit next to me all tuckered out and let me pet him for a while. He likes to be around people because he is social. I love him so much. If someday, when I get married, I love my wife half as much as I love my dog, she will be one lucky girl.

Then there are the protective dogs. When was the last time that you saw a cat walk up to an intruder who was robbing your house and "meow" warningly at him? Yea right, the cat probably wouldn't care as long as the robber didn't steal his tuna. Most dogs would violently throw themselves at any intruder, making as much noise as possible so their master could come out of their room holding a bat and make quick work of the thief.

Ah, yes, now we come to the rat-dogs...erm, lap dogs. OK, honestly, I love small dogs. It is all the vigor and excitement of a big dog, packed into a tiny body that is always quivering with energy, and often times letting loose excrement's due to its massive excitement levels. That is to say, it pees on you when it sees you because it is so happy. My cousins have a Yorkshire Terrier named Toby that they need to put a cloth diaper on whenever they have company because he pees out of excitement. I'm just glad that this pee function was installed on the small dogs and not the big dogs, or the messes would be a lot worse.

Big dogs...I love them too. You can't really play fetch with a lap dog, (Unless you are using it as the ball), and even if the small dogs would willingly attack any intruder to defend its house, I don't think it would do much good. Big dogs I love because you an play with them and rely on them and go running with them, and not worry about them getting tired. Ah yes, and now my near-maul story.

When I was a wee lad of about 12 years, I was playing tag with a friend of mine who was a little bit younger. He happened to have a German Shepherd named Schultz, who was very protective of him. Walk a little bit too close and you could hear a growl growing in the back of his throat. Anyway, my little friend and I were playing tag and he was chasing me. Shultz, being the loyal dog to his master, pounced on me and pinned me down, while biting my knee. Let's not forget that German Shepherds aren't exactly small dogs, let alone to a 12 year old boy. I still have scars from where his teeth bit me as proof. OK, perhaps it is slightly exaggerated, but even so--I still love dogs, even German Shepherds.

Chihuahuas do suck though. They are extremely aggressive for their size and bark at anything. There are certain types of dogs that I just wish would never have been bred. Honestly, what is the purpose of having a dog that is loud and annoying? They aren't even cute either. My neighbor's dogs are beagles, and I have learned to hate them too.

I can't say for sure if I will own pets when I have my own family, but if I were to have them, I would definitely have 2 dogs. (and a parrot, but that's another story) I think I would go with a German Shepherd, and a Yorkshire Terrier. I would be able to hang out with my big dog and play fetch with him, and throw the Frisbee and run around, and also have him protect my family when I am feeling lazy. And the Yorkshire Terrier would just sit on my lap while I watch movies. Wearing a diaper of course.

Jealousy

People do crazy things when they are jealous. They do things that they would never do when not under the influence of jealousy. Jealousy can be healthy, but unhealthy also depending on the true motive. Jealousy is healthy in the sense that it is a validation for yourself. It shows that you care enough about something that you are angry when it is taken away from you, or you don't think that you get what you are deserving.

Last Christmas, one of my good friends that I have known for nearly ten years gave my little brother an iPod touch as a present. True, it was used, but other than a small section of the screen that doesn't work, it was an excellent gift. I didn't care. Not the slightest tinge of anger or jealousy as I saw how happy my little brother was over this nice present. I have seen many people recieve magnificent gifts over my life, but for some reason, I just don't care. This isn't to say that I don't enjoy nice things, or recieving gifts from people, but there is almost a complacency that I feel when I see expensive things that people have. They just don't mean anything to me.

It is something that I am proud of, the fact that I am not overly materialistic. I do, however, still get jealous. Very jealous. Not over items of worth, but over people, and situations and abilities. These are the things that hold value in my eyes.

I get jealous when I see someone else invited to a place that I wasn't. I get jealous when I see that someone else gets the inside joke that I don't. I get jealous when someone else was let in on a secret that I wasn't. I get jealous when someone knows something that I don't. I get jealous when someone elses joke is lauged at, but mine isn't. I get jealous when someone else gets a compliment when I don't. I get jealous when I see someone do something that I can't.

I get jealous when I am forgotten and someone else isn't.

Jealousy makes you know what you really care about; things, abilities, situations, a person. If you are jealous about it, then it holds some worth in your life. If you don't get jealous, you don't care.

A Pensive Mood

So many choices to make. So many possibilities to consider. If only I knew how the future would turn out. Life would be so much easier if it came with instructions, a crystal ball, and a time turner. Perhaps a map of all possible outcomes; choosing would be as easy as pointing a finger. I would make use of them. Unfortunately, life is not a game that can be reset if an undesirable position is reached; my cautious personality is anxious. Anxious over things I can't control.

How am I to know what will be or what could have been. I know who I want to be and what I want, but going about getting them is no simple feat. So many obstacles: physical limitations, mental limitations, people. I don't want to waste my time; I want to live in the moment for if we are too concerned about what is to come, we miss out on the present. Yet, a balance is required so as to also consider for the future without being consumed by unsuccessfully attempting to account for all of its possibilities.

There must be no regrets or misgivings about a choice long past, and no fear in making new decisions. If I fear to make the wrong decision, and then make none, there will be no learning. There will be no moving forward, and I will be stuck in the same, hopeless position forever.

No, it is not hopeless.

Excitement and Stability

When I use the word "relationship" in a conversation, I generally mean the interactions that two or more people experience in their every day lives. This could be friendship, work relationships, romantic relationships, or any other number of interactions. While in truth, the topic of this blog doesn't simply fall into just the realm of romantic relationships, this is the part that will be mostly explored. This isn't to say that normal friendships don't have exciting times and boring times, but unless otherwise specified in this blog, the word "relationship" will refer to romantic relationships.

For the most part, lasting relationships can fall into two categories: exciting or stable. When people are inside a relationship there are always ups and downs, as described in the ever so popular analogy: a roller coaster of emotions. But how high and how low is necessary? Some people have different levels of tolerability in regards to how stable or exciting a relationship is; this isn't to say that the differences in these relationship styles are bad. Think of any healthy relationship like a frequency graph. Over time, the peaks and troughs on the graph of an exciting relationships can be higher and lower than in a stable relationship, but the average remains the same in both situations.

Some people need exciting relationships. They need to convince themselves that they still feel emotions, that the relationship that they have with this other person is real. They need someone who will convince them to do new things. Someone to argue with them; someone to leave them alone when things are going fine, and someone to completely rely on when they are feeling down. These are the people that you see yelling at each other in the line at the grocery store one minute, arguing over the dumbest thing, then the next minute holding hands walking off like nothing happened.

Then, there are the more stable relationships. The relationships whose graphs aren't peaks and valleys, but lulling hills. These are the people whose arguments aren't hot-headed fist fights, but perhaps have slightly raised voices and are easily reconciled. The people who hold their tongues until their anger has cooled down, and work out everything in a civilized manner. These people are content with what they have and what they have experienced, and don't need to endure massive swings of emotions to know that what they feel is real.

Not every single relationship is a healthy one, but in regards to healthy relationships, both the exciting and stable relationships have the same outcomes. Whether there are higher highs and lower lows, or a near flat line, it all averages out to be the same; two people who put aside whatever differences they have to live a life with each other.

Insufferable Wrongs

I had my heart broken today. No, not because of something that I experienced; this didn't involve me, or any of my friends, or even anyone that I had even seen before. My heart cracked because of something I saw; an evil in the world that had no emissary for the wronged. Something I could explain to you with words, but you would not understand what I meant. No human would understand the wrench that my heart felt when my eyes saw and my mind understood.

Even as I sat unnoticed with people all around me and quietly cried, so does this wrong go unnoticed. By all except for me. I cried for you, you who I do not know and will never see again. You are not alone.

I will not fall asleep easily tonight because of what I have experienced, and there is nothing I can do about it. Noone to tell of the wrong that I saw; noone to convince me that it won't happen again, and noone to tell me that it will be made right. I know God will make it right someday, but until then, I will speak to Him on behalf of the oppressed.

Fear

What makes people fear? What makes you fear? The first day of school. Public speaking. Roller coasters. Poverty. Pain. Rejection. Intimacy. Loneliness. Failure. Death.

In the end, what we fear most boils down to: helplessness and the unknown.

Why do little kids like night-lights? I mean, think about it--if monsters under the bed and in the closet really did exist, what good would a little light bulb plugged into a 120 volt socket actually do against it? Fear isn't so much in the actual event, experience, item, or player itself, but in the fact that we as humans like to know what is going to happen. We are creatures who like to plan ahead and know the future so we can attempt to control it.

Think of the fears that you have controlled in the past. Riding a bike down a steep hill. Having a spicy food. Riding a horse. Performing on stage. Think of all the joys that you have now that stemmed from a conquered fear. Many, I presume. If you never conquered your fears, you would have never left your crib and crawled on the floor. Never have opened the door to explore the great outdoors, never gone to school to learn, never gotten a job to grow, never gotten a friend to share life with.

We fear things that have no right to be feared. We simply fear them because we don't understand them, or we don't know what is going to happen. We hate being helpless and left in the dark, but at the same time, we live in the dark. We let our fears consume us and keep us from experiencing the fullness of life, just because we are unsure of what could happen.

When we finally go out on a limb and try that new food, jump out of the plane, and talk to that person, we grow. In the end, once we experience what we feared so much, we realize that it wasn't so bad after all. Maybe a Little pain, yes, but the cuts will heal and the scars will be unnoticeable. Perhaps, even a lesson can be learned and a new joy found. We find a new path to take and a new fear to conquer.

People

You know it, I know it--everyone is a person. Prisoners who sit in their cells, alone. Presidents who make world-changing decisions. Murderers who killed their wives. Frat boys who get drunk instead of studying. The founders of The United States. Nerds who sit on their computers all day. Telemarketers who call because it's their job. Maids who clean up disgusting messes. The terrorists from 9/11. The boys from Columbine. The victims from Columbine. The King of England. Sports Stars. Actors. Illegal aliens. Bums. Police officers. African children. Astronauts. The guy who works at McDonald's. The lady who is always walking her dog. Your school acquaintances. Your neighbor. Your closest friends. Your family.

It sounds stupid, I know, but how often do you stop to think about what it really means? As I go about my every day business, I see many people. The majority of the ones that I have more than a one minute interaction with, I have known personally for quite some time. I see their form and their face, and my mind begins to calculate certain things about them. Memories I have of them, what I expect of them, what they expect of me. It all works so naturally, almost like an auto-pilot, that I sometimes forget that they are just like me. Thinking. Feeling. People.

Every time you experience something that someone does to you or for you, think: other people are experiencing things also.

When you give someone a gift, to them, someone cares enough to think of their needs. When you compliment someone, to them, someone is making them feel good about themselves. When you make a joke at someones expense, to them, someone has hurt their feelings. When you lie to someone, to them, someone has disrespected them. When you kiss someone, to them, someone is being intimate with them. When you check someone out, to them, they are feeling good about themselves--or violated. When you beat someone in a game, to them, they are losers. When you lose to someone in a game, to them, they have defeated you. When you cheat against someone, to them, they have been stiffed what they worked hard for. When you do someone a favor, to them, someone cares enough to go out of their way for them. When you tell someone no, to them, they are being rejected. When you embarrass someone, to them, they feel ashamed. When you love someone, to them, they feel worth something.

Everyone is a person with wants, and needs, and desires. They have a body that sometimes doesn't fit, and a mind that sometimes is incomprehensible to others. They have things they like, things they despise. Things that are just a little bit annoying to them, and things that they can't live without. Favorite ice cream flavors, favorite colors, and allergies that make them sneeze. A favorite story, a best friend. A fear. A dream.

Think of all the joys and pains in life that you have experienced. Most of them, I'm sure, involve other people. People who have also had pains and joys. People, whose pains and joys were influenced by other people, just like yourself.

In the end, when you see a face that you are all too familiar with, stop yourself from the complacency of familiarity. Think,

"When I look into someones eyes, there is a history behind them. When I look into someones eyes, another person is looking back into mine."