I had two beautiful dogs named Bert and Rusty who were my best friends and companions. When Bert turned 17, I threw him a birthday party to celebrate his life. At the party, we had 60 dog lover friends attend, Marilyn Monroe sang him happy birthday in full regalia, seven accomplished veterinarians spoke about how animals have enriched their lives, an incredible multimedia show was presented.
In addition, I read an excerpt from a book about dogs that I think is just beautiful. It is enlightening for people of all faiths and is entitled How to Raise a Jewish Dog by Barbara Davilman, Ellis Weiner.
"We run a school, where students come for religious instruction and to be certified as Rabbis. One day I was teaching a course called GOD: Past, Present and Future. I opened the class asking the students what God's love was. They all started to ponder the question except for Ms. Silverstein, whose hand shot up and didn't wait to be called on she said a dog's love is the same as God's love?. "That is why Dog is God spelled backwards". Well naturally, I thought this was about the most ridiculous - and impious thing that I had heard...and so did the other students. But then a strange and very touching thing happened. One student, a Mr. Kyle Greenblatt, grudgingly agreed that Ms. Silverstein had a point and then went on to describe his earlier childhood years. One by one everyone shared their dog stories. By the end of the class we had not mentioned GOD once, but speaking over and over about love. I must admit that I came away from the session deeply moved. The similarity between what we hope from God and what we get from DOGS, is too striking to be ignored. Isn't GODS love that which makes us less alone and a little less afraid? And can we not say the same about the devotion of a DOG. Doesn't GOD love us no matter what and can we say the same about Dogs.
In the end, I had to agree. In fact I would even go so far as to say that a Dog's love teaches us something we don't always learn from GOD, A dog teaches us how to be loved.
Dogs are able to do this because they sneak past our defenses and under all our walls of distraction, self centeredness, sophistication, or whatever, they completely ignore our Keep out Signs and once they get in, they hit us with a Tsunami of love. We like to think that dogs need us, but the truth is that we need them. They are there to share the good times and to comfort us through the bad. They will offer up their cold wet noses on a hot summer day and share their bodies on a cold winter's night. They take us out of ourselves. They draw our attention to the here and now. They show us what it means to be courageous, patient, alert, focused, calm, nuts, vigilant, brave, kind and curious. All of which to say, that dogs make us better human beings - something of which god would heartily approve."
Thank you Bert for making me a better human being. Happy Birthday!
