Rescue Journal

i'm ok, you're ok.

Carol  ·  Feb. 23, 2010

we talk frequently about the honesty of animals and how we value that. well it is not necessarily true...we value their honesty when they are honest in ways that we want them to be honest in...like...i love you. we don't so much value their honesty when they tell us to piss off...ok, well... i value the honest "piss off" cuz if they warn me first then i don't get bit!

we also value honesty in people..... but just because we say we value it in others does not mean we place too high of a value on it ourselves....humans are the kings of double standards...you do it this way...like i said...and i say i do it this way too but.....really, i don't have to....but you still do...and i will say i do it that way too...even if it is not really true.

it is no wonder our animals are so messed up...they spend their lifetimes trying to figure us out.

doomed to failure cuz we don't even know what it is that we really do want....but i think it is simple...we want something from others that we don't even expect from ourselves. real honesty is too threatening for us to give..someone might not like us. better to fabricate a real good story of ourselves to convince folks instead.

so my burning question tonight is...why are we so afraid of ourselves? what do we think is so horrible about us that we have to keep hidden away? and why do we think that by nit picking on honesty for someone else, it absolves us not only of our own dishonesty but it makes us look more honest to others? it does??

in rescue we like to excuse our bad behavior by saying "we are a passionate honest breed"....get a real "passionate" honest dog into rescue and someone will permanently snuff out his or her passionate honest light. the passion for honesty is apparently fine in rescuers but not so fine for the rescued.

every time we open our mouths, one of two things happens...we either prove ourselves wise or we prove ourselves fools...i get this, i open my mouth a lot on this blog...i figure i am 20% the wise one and 80% the fool...and i think that is a pretty damn accurate assessment of me too.

and this is ok...look at the dogs that i live with and love so much..they are not rocket scientists most of the time..they have their moments of honest idiocy and their moments of great honest grace. the idiocy moments are much more frequent than the moments of actual grace.

and this is ok..i love them anyway...because they are truly honest in whoever they are at any given moment..

so i figure i am pretty safe..if they are good and lovable in their honesty then i can be too....i live in very good company...i'm ok, you're ok"

.....did you ever read that book?...sigh..my mother made me read it when i was a teenager..i cannot remember a darn thing about it except for the title...it is a good title..a universal honest to god truth to live by....i'm ok...you're ok..no one has to be perfect...i think that is where honesty is truly born.

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