FUTURE THINK

There’s a cool Pacific Life (insurance) commercial running on TV these days.  You can see on YouTube.com.  It’s called: Recordings.

The ad tells the story about how in 1968 humans finally got to hear the sounds of a special giant fish called a whale. I’m not sure why but maybe the whales were taking up too much space in the ocean because certain humans were annihilating the whales.  There were fewer and fewer in the water.  Then the first recordings of their soulful sing-songy sounds were broadcast.  Boom! It was as if humans realized they were living beings for the first time and there was an international outcry to stop killing them before their existence in the future was nonexistent.  Their population began to grow.  Pacific Life says that the whale represents “what is possible when people stop and think about the future.”

Dogs don't think too much about the future. They tend to think about what’s in front of them.  By thinking about what is in the present, we tend to give a human all we are and all we have whereas multi-tasking humans tend to give us their leftover selves.

Thinking about the future is something humans are supposed to be good at and yet I’m not so sure.  Just like the Pacific Life commercial tells it, humans really didn’t think too much about annihilating the future of whales until the music of their language made their presence real to humans.

So, here’s my lesson of the day… It seems to me that humans, for all their intelligence, still have so much to learn.  Dogs may not be so good about thinking about the future but we rock when it comes to living and contributing to the present.  Humans on the other hand, divvy out parts of themselves to the present and almost nothing to the future except those issues that appear either jeopardized or in the spotlight.  It seems humans should try being here now with us (dogs) and thinking about what their actions today will do to their tomorrow BEFORE their tomorrow is annihilated.

 

Q Okay, the question of the day is from Gobbles who asked: My leg was amputated because of something called cancer.  I get around okay but worry my kind won’t be attracted to me as much or that humans might not want to hang out with me anymore.  Do you think this is true? Note: please don’t make fun of my name.  My self-esteem is already low.  I got the stink’in name because I was born on Thanksgiving.

Dear Gobbles:

I like your name. You shouldn’t worry about losing the love and companionship of humans and dogs just because you lost a leg.  People love your heart (which still beats strongly in your chest) not your leg.