Daily Nugget of Gold 670
The Goodness of the Dog Bite
In an effort to give more real-life examples of how we can define an event for ourselves based on our own terms instead of allowing the event to define us by having our emotions run unchecked, the author would like to recount a story of his youth, in particular, his teenage years.
While riding a bicycle in a neighborhood near home, a dog was observed to be in an unfenced yard with some children. We kept going down the road as we had been, more or less at a slow speed and the dog stood up and approached from about fifty feet away. The author recalls the dog appeared to be friendly and was not concerned about the approach. The dog barked once and bit squarely on the butt which propelled the author to peddle much faster.
The details of what happened next after arriving back home are a little fuzzy, we’re not sure if the skin was actually punctured or not or if anyone had bothered to establish if the dog had a rabies vaccine, but none of that is important right now for this is about how the situation was dealt with from a mental standpoint. First and foremost, laughter occurred at the location of the bite on the body. This took a lot of the pain away immediately, for it was certainly amusing that the dog landed it right there on the posterior, as it were. It’s also worth noting that no one entertained the idea of a lawsuit.
The author learned from his Mother that the dog likely saw itself protecting the children and that whenever that situation may arise in the future that caution should be used. One might walk away with a fear of dogs in general for this incident, but not having a dog when growing up had the opposite effect, because as most children in similar circumstances of not having a dog know, we wanted one! Maybe that was helpful in the process of forgiveness, we’re not sure, but no memory of holding this against this or any other dog, for that matter, is recalled.
The author did make a note of it to ride on the other side of that street and to go much faster than that day and considered himself wise for doing so. The author was extremely grateful for not having to undergo the anti-rabies shots which may or may not be delivered by long needles to the stomach for a couple of weeks, at least that’s what the kids on the block had indicated!
That’s that. Taken away from the allegedly negative experience were valuable lessons not even noticed until now. Laughter and learning, wisdom from a parent, and an even greater love and respect of dogs. These are all good things, no?
Question of the Day to Ask Ourselves
“Doesn’t humor and learning turn any event into something positive in some way?”
Copyright 2012 Kevin Littleton, all rights reserved.
