Why Dogs (and those who love them) Never Get Off Track

Eleven year-old Labrador Retrievers like Buddy never seem to "get off the track."  Of course, what's the "track" anyway?  For doggies, and for most of us, its the "familiar, tried and true, good enough for our parents and grandparents."  For Buddy and his forecanines, Mother Nature sets all the rules needed.  Follow the trodden path:  doors open on the right,  the edge of the paved road or sidewalk, the water's edge of a lake or river.  Ok. Ok.  There are exceptions.  Hurrying squirrels.  A rabbit.  A kitty cat.  And even the overwhelmingly, irresistible,  eau d'carcass.  Why even the sight of that cute Scottie or Yorkie with fluffy hair aflopping, or a pair of Dachsunds legs working 90 miles an hour will distract Buddy and his kind from their appointed path.  All valid reasons. For Buddy, social time tops his list of path distractions.

For many of us however, while we still remember the "tried and true," we are easily lured from these paths. Humans' familiar, self-imposed, self-satisfying culture has developed canny, sophisticated, even scary subliminal tools, to distract us and to lure us into places we would have not otherwise ventured.  For sure a great deal of our progress toward enlightenment, refinement and sophistication has provided apparent advantages in medicine, information gathering, economics,  security and, especially, in human connectedness.

This is nothing new to any one reading this blog.  For to follow the "tried and true" paths, one must choose them over billions of competing offers, signals and messages all claiming greater success, beauty, cures and the "truth."  As of yet, we have not improved on the 24/7 model of available attention time. While great advances in medicine etc. will continue to amaze us and, perhaps, even inure to our benefit, deep within our hearts and souls, timeless, inchoate truths must be reckoned with and, either affirmed, or swept aside.  Only after this reckoning can new paths be taken.  

  Most of us have a desperate desire to make order out of daily chaos, and for real peace of mind, when many others seem to losing theirs.  Our most fervent need, however, is that there be hope for us and our loved ones.  Not hope for a better job, a more responsive partner, to end poverty,or kids that achieve our expectations. This "hope" is uttered without a serious expectation of certainty.  Sort of like buying a Power Ball lottery ticket.  I don't know anyone that feels confident about their "lottery wish." 

Beware of Greeks bearing words!  Yes, the same Greeks that today cannot balance their own budgets created hope to mean "expectation."  This hope is a hope that means certainty.  Hope that it is part and parcel of trust.  A confident expectation.  The author of the Bible speaks of the hope, the certainty, the expectation and the perseverance of people who utter, pray and believe the hope that is within their transformed hearts. 

"Peace in our time," a sentiment famously uttered by a world leader just days prior to the unleashing of the greatest human-directed mass extinction of humans since the black death of the 1400s, rang hopeful to people looking for peace less than 80 years ago. But this hopeful sentiment quickly became a horrid lie and its promise of no worth to the 80 million men, women and children who were soon to be slaughtered in the name of the "purity and rights" of nation states.

Our doggies know that peace in any time results from following the true, trodden paths.  Love all other people (Ok.  At least be kind and helpful), and stay true to what Mama Doggy taught us.  Love is one of those four-letter words that is packed with so many thoughts and emotions that one word doesn't always work.  The Greeks knew this thousands of years ago and so created four - read FOUR - different words to express the most exact sense of one's feelings:   

Agape, unconditional love, a giving to others with no expectation of any return or gratitude, best known as the love God has for us; 

 Eros, mostly used to describe intimate, sexual love;   

Philia, friendship between equals or brotherly love and  

Storge, affection for family members, but also of one's country or sports team.  

English speakers must struggle to fit the many levels of love in to one word, including "I'd love to go with you" or "I'd love to see that guy lose."  Even doggies show love in many ways:  incessant tail-wagging, snuggling on the couch, nuzzling a leg or barking while a  meal is on the way.  Stories of dogs helping and saving their masters are many.  Doggy love?  A love that grew out of a relationship with a family?  An innate sense of duty.  

Yet for us, our language limits distinctions between acts or states of love.  A soldier that sacrifices his life to save his comrades deserves a different word.  One that denotes "eternal, life-giving, selfless love." The act of one who never strayed from the truths written on his heart. An act that approaches the audaciousness of Jesus' seemingly ignomineous death on a cross mostly reserved for common criminals.  Jesus, the man, the God, whose life turned the world upside down, not only for his first-century followers, but for all people for all time.  A death that ultimately is THE victory over death, not only for Jesus, but for all who share in his life.

Heady, weighty, eternal-type stuff for us, not to mention our canine companions.  We have the hearts engraved with permanent messages about paths, trodden and true which, if followed, lead to permanent love.  Our heads, however, are too often our problematic enemy.  Susceptible to the sirens and taunts of every age we wage our internal battles with the forces of good and evil.  Good is what our hearts know.  Evil is what our hearts warn against.  Our battles continue until life's end.  And there, we find that the victory has already been won.  

Weren't we expecting it all along?