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.
You know, those of us who leave our homes in the morning and expect to find them there when we go back - it's hard for us to understand what the experience of a refugee might be like.
When you meet someone, you can silently send them a blessing, wishing them happiness, joy and laughter. This kind of silent giving is very powerful.
Our greatest heart-treasure is a knowledge that there is in creation an individual to whom our existence is necessary - some one who is part of our life as we are part of theirs, some one in whose life we feel assured our death would leave a gap for a day or two.
Our full humanity is contingent on our hospitality; we can be complete only when we are giving something away; when we sit at the table and pass the peas to the person next to us we see that person in a whole new way.
I wanted to know what happened when two people felt it. Would it divide the hurt in two, make it lighter to bear, the way feeling someone's joy seemed to double it?
I questioned whether anyone would love me because I'm in a wheelchair.
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