What does it take to have a world view? I think of myself as a fairly international dog with far ranging views. That was until I was reading a magazine earlier and realised there are people out there having much bigger thoughts than I will ever manage.
It made me think of my ancestors who probably never left their valley, or at least didn’t go far from it and whose world would have been on a much smaller scale. If one of them had travelled the world they would have come back to tell the others all about it and the puppies would have sat round in awe of this amazing elder dog. Now, with the internet and television people seem to be more impressed by the idols on the small screen than they do the ones in Katmandu and would rather view the world from the comfort of their armchair than really go out and learn about it first hand.
The only time people really seem to see the world is when they’re young and can take a gap year, but how many of them take their dogs with them? We’re left with a parochial view, presented with a world of possibilities but denied the opportunity. We house pets aren’t expected to have any really big thoughts and ambitions. We’re expected to conform, just as our ancestors did, just as you will expect our future puppies to do. Well this dog wants to become an intellectual with a better understanding of issues on a global scale, rather than just the ones in this village. I want to be able to write for magazines that are read by the intelligencia and be taken seriously. I may of course need to write under a pseudonym and gloss over the fact that I’m a dog, but I’m an adult now and I want to be taken seriously.