\u2022 If Charles Schulz is too intellectual for you, here is some You Tube dog humor<\/a> that you may enjoy more.\u00a0 Long live net neutrality.<\/p>\n \u2022 For years, daytime talk shows and evening newscasts have made it a point to feature victory stories — <\/em>ordinary people overcoming overwhelming odds to achieve amazing things.\u00a0 These stories are apparently meant to inspire us or, more cynically, end the program on a hopeful note so that we are more likely to tune in next time.\u00a0 The universal appeal of victory stories makes me wonder: has evolution led our bodies to produce not only endorphins but also empathins<\/em>, chemicals that stimulate our brains’ reward and action centers when we see others in trouble?\u00a0 Research is warranted.<\/p>\n \u2022 Sponges have no nervous system and no feelings.\u00a0 As if this weren’t misfortune enough, every day around the globe, we subject these poor creatures to even greater humiliation — we make them wipe the crumbs off our dishes and wash the scum off our floors with their own limp and soggy bodies.\u00a0 Stop the torture now!\u00a0 (Empathins indeed.)<\/p>\n \u2022 In his novel Boy’s Life<\/em> (1991), mystery-horror author Robert McCammon wrote:<\/p>\n The truth of life is that every year we get farther away from the essence that is born within us.\u00a0 We get shouldered with burdens, some of them good, some of them not so good.\u00a0 Things happen to us.\u00a0 Loved ones die.\u00a0 People get in wrecks and get crippled.\u00a0 People lose their way, for one reason or another.<\/em><\/p>\n I used to subscribe to this notion, that the wondrous na\u00efvety of one’s brightly-colored,\u00a0 irresponsible youth is more\u00a0essential<\/em> than that gray cynicism that settles in after years of hacking one’s way through the thickets of life.\u00a0 But McCammon is wrong asserting that what is born within us<\/em> is our essence — a blank slate is not more essential than the wisdom and experience inscribed on it.\u00a0 Experiences, good and bad, do not cause us to lose our way but help prepare us for the ways ahead:<\/p>\n \u2022 I went out for lunch by myself the other day.\u00a0 When I was finished, I decided to be a smart-ass and asked the server for separate checks.\u00a0 She returned to the table and, with a smile, handed me one check, then placed a second check at the seat across from me.\u00a0 I was curious to see how she played the game, so I reached across the table and flipped over the second check — it was blank.\u00a0 Then I looked at mine and found a $5 shared-plate charge.<\/p>\n \u2022 Some stories — like the one you just read — seem too good to be true.\u00a0 If they’re not true, they’re usually not too good.\u00a0 But I don’t let that stop me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u2022 They say dogs can smell fear. So if you come across a strange dog, you need to act like you are not afraid of it and hope that dogs do not smell pretense. \u2022 Here is what I imagine … Continue reading ![\"snoopy\"](\"http:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-content\/uploads\/snoopy-640x190.jpg\")
<\/a> This strip, from December 17, 1999, is one of the last ones Schulz drew before he died from colon cancer on February 12, 2000 — when dogs still used typewriters.<\/p>\nWhen we are young,\r\n we have barely begun\r\n to grasp our essence.\r\n\r\nWho we become \r\n is what we learn from\r\n our hardest lessons.\r\n<\/pre>\n