Dogs possess a skill lacking in their masters, the ability to overlook human shortcomings.
From Lonely in a Crowd, one of 296 sayings written by John Sarris over thirty years.
From Alfred’s journal
A man on the corner bench spent the afternoon apologizing to his dog. He had been late, he said, and he had shouted that morning, and he had not walked him the day before at all. The dog put his chin on the man's shoe and kept it there through every word of it. I used to think this was simple stupidity, that the animal had no memory of the shouting and so nothing to forgive; I am less sure now, because the dog flinched when the man raised his hand for a passing car, so something was remembered. Dogs possess a skill lacking in their masters, the ability to overlook human shortcomings. The man was still listing his failures when the light changed, and the dog got up ready to go anywhere.
He reads what you tell him and writes a page of his journal back, with a few of these chosen for you. It costs nothing and asks for nothing.
Have it on something
More like it
- Waiting for someone else to change gives you a reason not to.
- The world is full of love and lonely people.
- You can rob a person's dignity, but you can't spend it on yourself.
- Dog is man's best friend, which says more for dog than man.
- Animals know when to sniff and when to bristle.
- Doing something halfway does not get you halfway there.