(Photo from the book)
If you don’t know about Maria Popova, you should. Her site, Brain Pickings, is filled with great writing on art, literature, design and ideas, a great place to go to make yourself feel instantly more intelligent and brilliant.
Here’s her review of John Homans’ lovely book, What’s A Dog For?
Great quote:
This state of being-in-the-moment is what’s so compelling about dogs. It’s hard for a human to get to it. Even in the most difficult times, dogs are cheerful and ready for experience. A dog can’t figure out that it’s being measured for its grave. The three-legged chow that walks on my street every day doesn’t know the number three or have any sense that anything is wrong with her at all (and as I write, the dog is sixteen and still fit). It’s not that a dog accepts the cards it’s been dealt; it’s not aware that there are cards. James Thurber called the desire for this condition ‘the Dog Wish,’ the ‘strange and involved compulsion to be as happy and carefree as a dog.’ This is a dog’s blessing, a dim-wittedness one can envy.
