IMAGINATION ASSASSINATION

Did you ever notice today’s kids can’t do squat without being electronically entertained? They need to watch movies in the car, play games on the plane, text in the coffee line, and twitter at the dinner table. As long as they are quiet and not complaining, parents are pleased.

As a dog, I’m baffled by these phenomena.  I thought kids liked their freedom and yet they are electronically leashed (24/7/365) to a serial source of stimulation rather than imagination.

Jet, my foster mom (who rescued me from a kill zone city pound), tells me one of her favorite childhood pastimes was making her toys. She said her daddy’s sawhorse was transformed into a Palomino pony with shoestrings for reigns, old purses for saddlebags and mop ends for a mane. The lid from an old board game was turned into a sports car: the springs of her sister’s hair curler served as the gas pedal and the steering wheel was formed from a Frisbee attached to the cardboard bar of a clothes hanger.  Dogs think the same way.

A dog looks at a pile of leaves and sees a mountain of fun: a field of corn as full time entertainment, a wooded area as a playground. Dogs are entertainment, not status symbols.

Electronic distractions can rob everyone involved. Dogs have lost the simple pleasure of serving as the best friend a kid will ever know; parents raise kids without ever really knowing them. Kids suffer too. We are so busy serving entertainment up to them, they lack the imagination to fashion their own; humans, in general have forgotten the value of the simplest things: the soulful gaze from the eyes of a dog when he’s rescued, a tail that wags with elation at the first meal they eat from a bowl rather from the street. Businesses suffer since imagination is the soul of innovation.

Even a dog knows a mind is not like a delectable bone you can bury and then dig back up at any time.  No.  The mind is more like the plants a dog likes to pee on that need fertilizer, water, sun and nurturing to grow, flourish, and bloom. So, my lesson of the week: exhume imagination. Nurture it – now -  before it’s so long dead that our kids, parents, and companies in America will never more get ahead.

QUESTION FROM A FAN

Dear Parker, I’m not as smart as you but I learn pretty well. Even so, my human has me confused.  One day they let me chase rabbits, the next day they say, “no!” to the same thing; one day they praise me for eating my food, the next day they scold me for eating too much. It’s frustrating.  In fact, the entire household of humans - mom, dad and two, teen humans - seem frustrated most of the time. What’s a dog to do?   - Your pal, Fresco

Dear Fresco:

Just because humans are smart doesn’t mean 

they always do smart things.  My foster mom says 

that humans are notorious for sending mixed signals, 

which is why she hates dating. My guess is that if you 

are getting mixed signals from your mom and dad, they 

are likely sending each other mixed signals too. I think

 the best thing to do is send your humans to a marriage 

counselor or psychiatrist for group therapy.  When they 

stop sending mixed signals to each other, they are more 

likely to stop sending mixed signals to you.  Good luck!

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