Saturday 14th June 2008

Having only just got past deciding whether or not I’m superstitious I now have to decide whether I should be celebrating the summer solstice. I feel I ought to take all relevant points into consideration but I am struggling to find what the view of this is in Switzerland where I originate from, or for that matter what other dogs think. So far in answer to my questions most dogs have replied ‘what’s the summer solstice?’ I get as far as explaining it is all to do with the equinox and then they glaze over. I’m starting to think that dogs have not been the foremost worshippers of gods over the ages. It may be that dogs only worship their owners and can’t see any further than the next bowl of food, but then I suppose that isn’t so very different to the reasons people tried to appease gods in ancient times. They either wanted to eat, grow food to eat or reproduce, none of which are all that different to the average dog. Then again despite the fact that humans think they have moved forward and that it is less likely to be the Western World celebrating the more basic deities, you still see thousands of people in swimming costumes, lying on the beach, worshipping the sun god.

On balance I think I can bring this whole idea down to basics. I am not planning to be up at sunrise. I am usually asleep before sunset (and if I’m being strictly honest a good portion of time in between). I think therefore on balance I will leave the solstice to those who need a little less sleep than I do, which pretty much rules out the whole of our household. If you’re up there sun god, I’m sorry if you’re offended and will miss me but could you not have rearranged sunrise to a slightly more convenient time?