Where My Dogs At · Nov 21, 11:04 AM

Since when did I need an excuse? I remember being a pretty young kid and telling my dad that a friend asked me to come over to his house but that I didn’t want to go. My dad told me that I should call the boy and tell him that I don’t want to go to his house. Then I asked what I should say if he asks my reason for not wanting to come over. My dad told me that it’s none of his business why I don’t want to come over. Simple enough—I made the phone call and when the boy asked why I didn’t want to come over I told him, “I just don’t.” I’ve used this technique ever since. If I don’t feel comfortable with something I shy away from it, not necessarily so overtly. Sometime more recently though, I started explaining myself to people, stating my reasons for why I do what I do. What a mistake. Most of the time there is no explanation for why I want to do something, short of an ultimate telos-centric answer.
Realizing this, I never get down if a girl doesn’t call me back or if someone from a magazine that I want to write for doesn’t return my letter. I never know where people are coming from and what is going on in his or her life. Unthinkable things happen; nothing you can do about ‘em. It’s funny too that people think that the world revolves around them, and it’s such a tragedy if things don’t work out the way someone imagines they should.

All this is coming from walking and watching two dogs this weekend. Watching these dogs has been so great for me. (I’ll call them P and L because they are like kids and they didn’t give me permission to use their names). Walking P and L was my first job in New York City. This was almost four years ago. The first time I watched them was for 11 days and I kept a detailed chart of what time I walked them, whether each of them pooed or peed and the exact location of the bowel movements. I never had a pet growing up but luckily I lived with my brother Joe’s dog Ruby in Los Angeles so I had experience walking a dog. I couldn’t really show affection towards a person until I was 20 and I had trouble petting a dog until I was 23, but the experiences of living with five girls in England and living with Ruby eased those tensions. It’s weird because my best friend growing up was Annie, and she had two dogs. Right now she has a big sheep dog. I was just weirded out by animals though.

I’ve realized that dogs can be fun to be around. They aren’t dumb. P was so picky about what food she would eat. Sometimes she’ll eat canned food, sometimes only boiled liver and chicken, but she won’t just eat anything edible. I’m starting to see why someone might love his dog so much, at least why P and L’s owner would love them so much. They’re fun to be around. You can be yourself around a dog; you don’t have to explain yourself to them. I agree with Mortimer J. Adler when he writes that dogs are radically different in kind than humans. If you care to read his whole argument, read the Difference of Man and the Difference it Makes. It’s worth reading, but he never hung out with Ruby or P or L or Melissa from the dog park in Los Angeles’ dog. I just like taking a long walk with a dog and see what spots she sniffs, where she pees, what dogs she barks at and what dogs she plays with.

My oldest brother who recently visited me observed that I need a companion. Guess he saw that I spend a lot of time alone. He’s probably right but I’m not ready yet for a dog.

(sean thomas photo from Sahar photo shoot, YPIV)
Happy Thanksgiving.

— Albin

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