Imagine how different your life would be if the people around you only cared about how you treated them and didn't care at all about what you looked like, how you dressed, how rich or how successful you were. Imagine what your life would be like if people were more like dogs.
My 90-pound black lab Nigel smothers me with kisses and wags his tail deliriously when I return from a trip to the supermarket. He is ecstatic that not only have I returned but I have returned with food, no less! A bonus! He couldn't care less that my toenails aren't painted or that I am wearing the same exercise clothes that I exercised in hours ago. The sweat and lack of make-up don't interest him. He doesn't care if I am employed or if I am talented at anything. He just wants a little attention from me and maybe some of that food.
I think my dog is smart enough to know that if anything happens to me, he will never eat again so he is protective of me in a somewhat confused but primal way. He is possessed of the notion that the package delivery man is coming to take me away so he does his vocal best to dissuade the package delivery man every time he comes to the house to kidnap me. So maybe my dog doesn't understand as much as a person would but on the other hand, shifting loyalties that come with divorce or break-ups do not exist in the canine world. Once they love you, they love you forever. And they will guard the people they love from the serial kidnapper package delivery man, day after day after day.
Dogs also just accept that we humans aren't perfect and they don't expect anything close to perfection. My dog Nigel enthusiastically goes and gets the ball I have thrown away because he has made the assumption that I might want to have that ball again at some point in the future. He doesn't exhibit any attitude when I fail to learn the error of my ways because I throw it away again and again. Over and over. How many people have that amount of patience?
How many of us would be truly happy without opposable thumbs, credit cards or social media? I wouldn't. But my dog is a happy boy without all of that just because he is happy to be alive. If people were more like dogs, we'd be happy to be alive, to get a pat on the head upon occasion and to get away with lying on the sofa when no one was looking.
Life would be so much simpler and so much more satisfying if people were more like dogs.
photo credit: White Boxer Puppy via photopin (license)