Dogs & Chicken

     ​We happen to come across a dog show and decide to watch for a while.  It’s fun to see the various dogs and their owners interacting, prancing in tandem around the make-shift arena while a judge observes.  Off in the distance, to my left is a standard poodle standing on a table.  His owner is fluffing his hair, trimming it, fluffing it some more.  On and on she styles these large and small balls of fur.  She stands back, observes her work and then continues.  All of this preening doesn’t seem to change the appearance of the dog at all.  Yet she does this for a very long time.  The dog knows he’s magnificent.  You can tell by the way he holds himself.  He stands relatively still on the table looking at nothing in particular.  It’s clear to me that he is accustomed to this ritual.  It dawns on me that we, as a society, are so affluent that some of us choose to take meaningless tasks and make them meaningful, just so that we have something to do.  I look around at all of the people who are participating in this dog show and wonder if this is what societal evolution looks like.  When all of our needs are met, THIS is how we fill the time void.
 
     My thoughts pivot to a press release that recently came across my desk.  Up north there was a truck hauling live chickens that jackknifed on the highway creating a large accident scene.  Most of the chickens perished as a result.  A group is requesting to be allowed to erect a large statue of a chicken at this vary spot to remind people of the cruelty we’re inflicting on animals in general as a society.
 
     The dog show and the chicken accident are completely different occurrences, yet are interrelated in a way.  In my mind both are filed now in the same compartment of my brain.