Running into a Dead End

One great perk of my current job is that I get to run at my preferred time, i.e. late morning, every day in the summer. This lets me observe a greater cross-section of people. During my daily runs over the past few years, I have had the pleasure of greeting (or being greeted by) a gentleman who lives a few blocks down the street. I would see this gentleman either working in the yard with his dog or walking his dog. Once I saw him with two dogs and asked him about the addition. He said that it was his daughter's and he was taking care of it for her. Exchanging only greetings but never names, we recognized and appreciated each other.

Today I saw this gentleman for the first time this summer. He hailed me from across the street. He was working in the yard as I was running. I waited for the traffic to clear and crossed the street to say hello. I asked him about the dog. I sensed the emotion in his voice when he said he had the dog put down last year because of the pain and suffering the dog was going through. I mumbled something about there being no other alternative sometimes. He added that losing the dog was sometimes a lot more than losing a family member. He remembered that the dog would always accompany him when he went to bed.

All relationships, including those between humans, animals, and plants, involve love and death and are 'moving' experiences. Thus one needs to "keep running." Stagnation is not a choice for the human 'race.'