Dog is God
A "What if" short story featuring an article in today's time followed by reflections from a writer later in the century. Enjoy.
By Doug Walker
dwalker@avct.com
ASHEVILLE -- June 10, 2011 -- Dog bites man, nothing new. Man bites dog, people want to read about it. Now there’s Dog is God and everybody’s got an opinion. You’ve probably seen bumper stickers that read “Dog is Love” around town. They were the brain child of Lee Shepherd, owner of Paw Lee’s Island, the dog emporium on Hendersonville Road that, according to Lee, outsells every big box pet store in town. “It’s the mutts swimming in the moat,” Shepherd shared when we met.
He continued with, “When you look in a puppy’s eyes, what do you see?” I took a leap: “Love?” “Exactly. And whether you adopt from us, a breeder or the shelter, it’s those same loving eyes looking up at you.”
His opinion of the new sightings of “Dog is God” decals and bumper stickers, which he claims no credit for, was provocative.
“I believe there is a dog heaven and that dogs should get equal billing when it comes to a higher power. It’s simple, Who shows love ALL the time on this earth? It ain’t humans!
“Think about this with an open mind,” Shepherd pressed. “If you really love Me, you will keep My commands. That’s John 14: 15. Commands? Isn’t it ironic that we command our dogs to sit, heel, shake hands and lie down, which they learn to do and never seem to forget, yet we’re taught to be patient, welcoming and humble but have to will ourselves to do it. We build up animosities with others and become none too welcoming and beat our chest when we score with a stock pick instead of being humble and thankful.”
Now knowing Lee Shepherd’s take on Dog is God, I decided to take the controversy to the streets with a cardboard sign showing the bumper sticker and a handwritten question, Can this be true?
Allard Nevens, an English gentleman visiting from North Yorkshire, expressed a liberally-minded European point of view. “My understanding is that we are expected to believe this or that by faith alone. It’s utter twaddle to say we must believe one thing and only one thing. So maybe it’s best to just let sleeping dogs lie.”
And here at home, thoughts from a man who claims to have a close relationship with God. He declined our request to use his name. “It is pure blasphemy to even suggest some four-legged creature is God almighty. Mules, goats, cats, dogs, what is next from these godless humanists? I will pray for your forgiveness for even asking such a question.”
For more opinions and to add your comments go to www.avct.com/goddogs
____________________________________
God Knows . . .
Peter Petrice
Syndicated Columnist
Mass//Sky, York City
YOD2047-0956
Reflections…
While UA Supreme Commander Michelle Obama commemorates the tenth anniversary of the death of her husband from 54 years of cigarette smoking, it cannot go unnoticed how the world has changed. We’ve discussed here just how swiftly peoples of the Unified Americas, the Union of the Pacificas as well as the now peaceful Europians have adapted to what politicians five decades ago called “The New World Order.”
Gone are cathedrals with their pulpit pundits stirring fact-less pots of phooey that for centuries brewed disagreements that turned into mass murder. We are now living worlds apart from the religious fanaticism that ruled our world and lost the simple focus that God is love.
Money, the root of all evil that we unanimously agreed is true, is no more. There were euros, francs, dollars, yen and hundreds more finely printed and circulated false-sense-of-security instruments now rationally replaced with a single worldwide endowment for every man, woman and child. No more poverty! And not one thieving bank to be needed or found in any neighborhood.
No more carrying of child or fetus or whatever the long verbal and sometimes physical battles of ownership and rights were about. Look how far we’ve come to be civil and loving societies now that all human embryos are rooted In vitro and only artificially fertilized when an order is placed and payment made from a person’s or couple’s endowment(s).
So many more turns of events, resettings of the clock, all so man can move forward with new insights brought to the forefront by honest reflections upon the past. Our foibles were countless as we tried our humanly thoughtful best to structure lives, make sense out of the senseless, bring order without thought that we actually were the inmates in the asylum all along. But, I must pause because our virtual curmudgeon space is nearly filled, and I choose again to end with my respects to Dog.
After reflections, which you’ve come to expect from me in my musings, I think of birds and bees and flowers and trees and a God that has passed the baton of humanity to the very last to be named. It was a creature who loved without bias, barked warnings without thought of self harm and curled unassumingly in half sleep with an always thoughtful eye on his human. Never one to complain, always cheerful, helpful, zestful throughout their shortened years, always there to take the lead but only when asked.
As our new inspirational chiprels document, this creature of comfort once came to ask, “Dear God, there’s not a name left for me.” Kindly the truth was told (and we are all happy for it). “You I’ve left a name I now can share, after birds like the sparrow and flowers like the lily. I remind you, all that has now been created will accompany you in this world with a reverence that only you and they will know. And as we’ve discussed, the uprights, the humans, will need time to adjust and see the completeness of my plan.
“So, now I give you a name that bestows the need to lead when I call upon you. You will be known as it was written in the Scriptures without its meaning ever completely understood, that ‘the first shall be last and the last shall be first’. Therefore, you are my name, first letter to last, last to first.
“Dog.”
By Doug Walker
dwalker@avct.com
ASHEVILLE -- June 10, 2011 -- Dog bites man, nothing new. Man bites dog, people want to read about it. Now there’s Dog is God and everybody’s got an opinion. You’ve probably seen bumper stickers that read “Dog is Love” around town. They were the brain child of Lee Shepherd, owner of Paw Lee’s Island, the dog emporium on Hendersonville Road that, according to Lee, outsells every big box pet store in town. “It’s the mutts swimming in the moat,” Shepherd shared when we met.
He continued with, “When you look in a puppy’s eyes, what do you see?” I took a leap: “Love?” “Exactly. And whether you adopt from us, a breeder or the shelter, it’s those same loving eyes looking up at you.”
His opinion of the new sightings of “Dog is God” decals and bumper stickers, which he claims no credit for, was provocative.
“I believe there is a dog heaven and that dogs should get equal billing when it comes to a higher power. It’s simple, Who shows love ALL the time on this earth? It ain’t humans!
“Think about this with an open mind,” Shepherd pressed. “If you really love Me, you will keep My commands. That’s John 14: 15. Commands? Isn’t it ironic that we command our dogs to sit, heel, shake hands and lie down, which they learn to do and never seem to forget, yet we’re taught to be patient, welcoming and humble but have to will ourselves to do it. We build up animosities with others and become none too welcoming and beat our chest when we score with a stock pick instead of being humble and thankful.”
Now knowing Lee Shepherd’s take on Dog is God, I decided to take the controversy to the streets with a cardboard sign showing the bumper sticker and a handwritten question, Can this be true?
Allard Nevens, an English gentleman visiting from North Yorkshire, expressed a liberally-minded European point of view. “My understanding is that we are expected to believe this or that by faith alone. It’s utter twaddle to say we must believe one thing and only one thing. So maybe it’s best to just let sleeping dogs lie.”
And here at home, thoughts from a man who claims to have a close relationship with God. He declined our request to use his name. “It is pure blasphemy to even suggest some four-legged creature is God almighty. Mules, goats, cats, dogs, what is next from these godless humanists? I will pray for your forgiveness for even asking such a question.”
For more opinions and to add your comments go to www.avct.com/goddogs
____________________________________
God Knows . . .
Peter Petrice
Syndicated Columnist
Mass//Sky, York City
YOD2047-0956
Reflections…
While UA Supreme Commander Michelle Obama commemorates the tenth anniversary of the death of her husband from 54 years of cigarette smoking, it cannot go unnoticed how the world has changed. We’ve discussed here just how swiftly peoples of the Unified Americas, the Union of the Pacificas as well as the now peaceful Europians have adapted to what politicians five decades ago called “The New World Order.”
Gone are cathedrals with their pulpit pundits stirring fact-less pots of phooey that for centuries brewed disagreements that turned into mass murder. We are now living worlds apart from the religious fanaticism that ruled our world and lost the simple focus that God is love.
Money, the root of all evil that we unanimously agreed is true, is no more. There were euros, francs, dollars, yen and hundreds more finely printed and circulated false-sense-of-security instruments now rationally replaced with a single worldwide endowment for every man, woman and child. No more poverty! And not one thieving bank to be needed or found in any neighborhood.
No more carrying of child or fetus or whatever the long verbal and sometimes physical battles of ownership and rights were about. Look how far we’ve come to be civil and loving societies now that all human embryos are rooted In vitro and only artificially fertilized when an order is placed and payment made from a person’s or couple’s endowment(s).
So many more turns of events, resettings of the clock, all so man can move forward with new insights brought to the forefront by honest reflections upon the past. Our foibles were countless as we tried our humanly thoughtful best to structure lives, make sense out of the senseless, bring order without thought that we actually were the inmates in the asylum all along. But, I must pause because our virtual curmudgeon space is nearly filled, and I choose again to end with my respects to Dog.
After reflections, which you’ve come to expect from me in my musings, I think of birds and bees and flowers and trees and a God that has passed the baton of humanity to the very last to be named. It was a creature who loved without bias, barked warnings without thought of self harm and curled unassumingly in half sleep with an always thoughtful eye on his human. Never one to complain, always cheerful, helpful, zestful throughout their shortened years, always there to take the lead but only when asked.
As our new inspirational chiprels document, this creature of comfort once came to ask, “Dear God, there’s not a name left for me.” Kindly the truth was told (and we are all happy for it). “You I’ve left a name I now can share, after birds like the sparrow and flowers like the lily. I remind you, all that has now been created will accompany you in this world with a reverence that only you and they will know. And as we’ve discussed, the uprights, the humans, will need time to adjust and see the completeness of my plan.
“So, now I give you a name that bestows the need to lead when I call upon you. You will be known as it was written in the Scriptures without its meaning ever completely understood, that ‘the first shall be last and the last shall be first’. Therefore, you are my name, first letter to last, last to first.
“Dog.”
