But now ask the beasts, and they will teach you; And the birds of the air, and they will tell you; Or speak to the earth, and it will teach you; And the fish of the sea will explain to you.   Job 12:7-8 NKJV   [epigraph]

FINALLY, IT WAS MY DOGS WHO TAUGHT ME TO STOP AND SMELL, WELL, EVERYTHING! A long subtitle, granted, but I could not find one any better, one that got so close to the spirit of the book. My dogs were outrageously enthusiastic. The pitch was always high. They didn’t know the difference between the grand and the commonplace. To them, everything was grand, particularly the commonplace. They always came at life with a full heart. And that is the spirit I wanted to capture. This book celebrates the devoted life and gives us glimpses of what the devoted life actually is, what it looks like, how it behaves, the possibility of attaining it, and what little work it has to be. Using dogs as a common and playful metaphor, this book examines worship, not as an isolated event, but as a vision of life. AND THEREBY HANGS A TALE [working title] instructs, even as it entertains. This book also employs scripture, amusing sidebars, and quotes from other sources to achieve its end. In the tradition of TO LOVE IS CHRIST (Nelson 2005), each chapter ends with an original prayer and a benediction. We hope by Fall of this year the book will be available.

 

CHAPTER TITLES

• So Inevitably Dog
• Presence Is Everything 
• It’s Almost Like Being in Love
• If I Love You, Who Cares What Time It Is?    
• The Joy of Being Who I Am     
• If Only I Could Love Like That
• And Finally, It Was My Dogs Who Taught Me to Stop And Smell, Well, Everything 
• Epilogue: The Incredible Journey 

LITERARY AGENT: Bucky Rosenbaum [The Rosenbaum Agency-Brentwood, TN]

BIBLIOGRAPHY (see list below): Though the bibliography is extensive, and the reading took many hours, there was too much enjoyment in it to call it work. Dogs have a spirit unmatched anywhere in nature, even among humans. Each of these books not only captured this spirit, but remained true to that spirit. Jeffrey Masson’s book DOGS NEVER LIE ABOUT LOVE explored origins, genetic proclivities, and the psychology of the dog with fascinating detail. It was also a wealth of great quotes. I got tears reading Jack London’s great book WHITE FANG. Rich. Deep. Invasive. London got the point. John Grogan’s book MARLEY AND ME was difficult, only because Grogan captured so well the trials of euthanasia, having suffered bereavement for a “smelly old dog.” I have experienced the same three times now and the resonance was immediate. Grogan too got the point. I loved that. Obviously, others loved it too, evident by MARLEY’S success.

I read Anne Quindlen’s new book, GOOD DOG. STAY, at one sitting. Again, tears, laughter, and executed with great craftsmanship. DOG LOVE was written by a Harvard Professor of Shakespeare, Marjorie Garber. Her depth was thrilling and provocative, and yet, in all her scholarship, she too captured that spirit, making her work light and playful, even in the depths. Dogs just do that to us.They meddle with us. They love too much not to. And they’re always good for a metaphor. The Christian contemplatives, Thomas Merton (NEW SEEDS OF CONTEMPLATION) and Brother Lawrence (THE PRACTICE OF THE PRESENCE OF GOD) offered a look at devotion and sacrificial love from a Christian perspective, providing a firm underpinning for this book.

All of these sources together, while they made the work not necessarily easy, made it fun. And memorable. It called up the child in me, the scholar, the believer, and the lover. I indulged them all. I wept, I laughed, and I felt a return of the “bounce” I once had as a boy, and when faith was new to me.

Because dogs are dogs, many authors, even the better ones, could not resist the temptation to be playful with their language. Most of them were guilty of this. Used in moderation, or with a touch of understatement, this works. Dogs do that to us. It is a forgivable fault, but in some books all the attempts at cuteness was a distraction. Therefore, I was careful to let the dogs entertain in my book, and not to distract with too much verbal play. Anyway, being lactose intolerant, I have an aversion to cheese.

Enough for now. I hope this blog does justice to all dogs. There are a lot of dog books on the shelves these days. But why shouldn’t there be? We should celebrate and mimic such a spirit. As Shakespeare’s Hamlet said, “Cat will mew, and dog will have his day.”

—David

 

 

• Brother Lawrence. Practice of the Presence of God. Public Domain.
• Caras, Roger. A Dog is Listening. New York: Summit, 1992. 
• Garber, Marjorie. Dog Love. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996. 
• Grenier, Roger. The Difficulty of Being a Dog. Chicago: University of Chicago, 2000.
• Grogan, John. Marley and Me. New York: Harper Collins, 2005. 
• Houston, Jean. Mystical Dogs. New York: Inner Ocean Publishing, 2002.
• Kundera, Milan. The Art of the Novel. New York: Grove Press, 1986.
• Kundera, Milan. Farewell Waltz. New York: Harper Perennial, 1998.
• London, Jack. White Fang. Public Domain.
• Maeterlinck, Maurice. Our Friend the Dog. Public Domain.
• Masson, Jeffrey Moussaieff. Dogs Never Lie About Love. New York: Crown Publishing Group, 1997.
• Mann, Thomas. “A man and his dog.” Death in Venice. Public Domain.
• Merton, Thomas. New Seeds of Contemplation. New York: New Direction Publishing, 1961.
• Merton, Thomas. Asian Journal. New York: New Direction Publishing, 1975. 
• Quindlen, Anna. Good dog. Stay. New York: Random House, 2007.
• Teems, David. To Love is Christ. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2005.