Santa Claus Or God?
Luky is not on sabbatical. He's been working on his letter to Santa. But a couple of mornings this week - with subfreezing temperatures to greet our earliest predawn visits to the park - have gotten him thinking about posting to his blog again. It's a Malamute thing.
Also, Luky's Uncle Jack has been by a couple of times recently, and that always gets Luky thinking about the loftier issues of life.
"Belief" has been the biggest topic of late - remember, he regularly delves into time travel, meaning of life and all manner of other intellectual pursuits and passions - but when he starts dictating these days it's usually about the topic of belief. It's not just God and religion, but any kind of belief.
Luky says that expressions of belief (he calls them "DOBs" which stands for "declarations of belief") represent the most abusive use of language in humanspeak - apparently dogs and wolves have a much higher and stricter code of honor when it comes to language and communication. After weeks of listening to him talk to himself in the hallways, and just lying around on his designer futon, I think I'm starting to understand what he means. The bottom line is, people can endorse all sorts of crazy ideas without the least bit of personal responsibility simply by saying, "I believe 'X'," where "X" stands for anything from God and Santa Claus, to weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, or the ethical intents of countries.
I asked him if he really meant to leave Santa Claus in discussions like this. His answer was, as I ought to have expected, thorough, thoughtful and without a crack.
"DOBs are, after all, descriptions of mental states of conviction, so it doesn't matter how I answer your question, unless I'm prepared to offer incontrovertible evidence my conviction cannot be transferred or fully explained to you if you don't already have an inclination to so believe."
"What in the hell does that mean?" I gathered he was purposely trying to lose me in a rooster tail of meaning left misting the atmosphere after such gobbledygook.
"It means that, just like God and UFOs, the subject of my belief in Santa Claus is between me and Santa."
"I understand WHAT you're saying," I admitted, "but you're still avoiding the question. Perhaps you just don't want to say 'Yes' and look like a fool, but then you also don't want to say 'No,' and take the chance of offending him if he's really there and planning to bring you crates of biscuits."
Luky looked at me, his nose twitching searching for the scent of truth, and his furry eyebrows rising above his widening eyes.
"Are you talking about Santa Claus or God?" He asked.
Yeah, he got my point!
Also, Luky's Uncle Jack has been by a couple of times recently, and that always gets Luky thinking about the loftier issues of life.
"Belief" has been the biggest topic of late - remember, he regularly delves into time travel, meaning of life and all manner of other intellectual pursuits and passions - but when he starts dictating these days it's usually about the topic of belief. It's not just God and religion, but any kind of belief.
Luky says that expressions of belief (he calls them "DOBs" which stands for "declarations of belief") represent the most abusive use of language in humanspeak - apparently dogs and wolves have a much higher and stricter code of honor when it comes to language and communication. After weeks of listening to him talk to himself in the hallways, and just lying around on his designer futon, I think I'm starting to understand what he means. The bottom line is, people can endorse all sorts of crazy ideas without the least bit of personal responsibility simply by saying, "I believe 'X'," where "X" stands for anything from God and Santa Claus, to weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, or the ethical intents of countries.
I asked him if he really meant to leave Santa Claus in discussions like this. His answer was, as I ought to have expected, thorough, thoughtful and without a crack.
"DOBs are, after all, descriptions of mental states of conviction, so it doesn't matter how I answer your question, unless I'm prepared to offer incontrovertible evidence my conviction cannot be transferred or fully explained to you if you don't already have an inclination to so believe."
"What in the hell does that mean?" I gathered he was purposely trying to lose me in a rooster tail of meaning left misting the atmosphere after such gobbledygook.
"It means that, just like God and UFOs, the subject of my belief in Santa Claus is between me and Santa."
"I understand WHAT you're saying," I admitted, "but you're still avoiding the question. Perhaps you just don't want to say 'Yes' and look like a fool, but then you also don't want to say 'No,' and take the chance of offending him if he's really there and planning to bring you crates of biscuits."
Luky looked at me, his nose twitching searching for the scent of truth, and his furry eyebrows rising above his widening eyes.
"Are you talking about Santa Claus or God?" He asked.
Yeah, he got my point!
posted by RAM at 9:03 AM
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