When you write about animals, of course, you are really writing about the people who love and live with them. Animals mirror and reveal us. Dogs in particular are often reflections of us, and what we need them to be.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes that writing about animals often reflects the human experiences and emotions of those who care for them.
In this quote, Jon Katz suggests that our relationships with animals, particularly dogs, serve as a mirror to our own personalities and needs. By observing how we perceive and interact with our pets, we can gain insight into our own lives and the emotional connections we forge with them. The relationship is not merely one of owner and pet; it intertwines with human emotions, needs, and reflections of ourselves.
In practice
During a speech about compassion, this quote can illuminate the bonds we share with pets.
Animals have come to mean so much in our lives. We live in a fragmented and disconnected culture. Politics are ugly, religion is struggling, technology is stressful, and the economy is unfortunate. What's one thing that we have in our lives that we can depend on? A dog or a cat loving us unconditionally, every day, very faithfully.
Always make the other person feel important.
There is simply no dignified way for a woman to live alone. Oh, she can get along financially perhaps (though not nearly as well as a man), but emotionally she is never left in peace. Her friends, her family, her fellow workers never let her forget that her husbandlessness, her childlessness - her selfishness, in short - is a reproach to the American way of life.
It is only with the companionship of the Holy Ghost that we can hope to be equally yoked in a marriage free from discord. I have seen how that companionship is crucial for felicity in a marriage. The miracle of becoming one requires the help of heaven, and it takes time.
I asked my husband if he was surprised by all the #MeToo stories. 'Yeah, I'm surprised,' he said. Ask any woman, they're not surprised. It's been going on for years.
I hold this to be the highest task for a bond between two people: that each protects the solitude of the other.
It’s hard to communicate anything exactly and that’s why perfect relationships between people are difficult to find.
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