Friday 9th January 2009

It is definitely the case that the world is a spiral of deeds. If you do an unpleasant thing to the next person then they are likely to be unpleasant in their turn to the person after that. On the other paw, if you can start the chain by being considerate, then in turn the next person feeling the compassion and humanity shown to them, will in turn show compassion and humanity to the next person along the line. There is a whole culture of random acts of kindness, which could make this world a better place for man and dog alike. It doesn’t matter that you don’t know the person that you are doing the good deed for or that they may not know the name of the person they then help, all that matters is that you do help and somewhere down the line, when you most need it and least expect it, someone will do something nice for you. By now, we are nine days into January and most of your resolutions may have been broken by at least eight days, but it’s never too late to remember the impact you have on your little corner of the world and so I pointed out to my Mistress when I reminded her that she had resolved to be less grumpy and may not be succeeding on that score. What all this does take is the time to stop and notice the needs of others and to take the time to do something about it, not something I have observed many humans being good at! Dogs will always take time to wag their tail and snuffle at a stranger. We generally start from the assumption that people are our friends and the more so when the people look sad. There is nothing like a dog to cheer the spirits and bring a smile to the face on the glummest of days, and all we ask is the odd pat in return.