Hawthorn Hill Journal by Richard deRosa

Should We Get a Dog?

I am often asked how things are going up here on the hill. My usual answer is: pretty well. I do not get to the village often. And when I do it is not rare, when bumping into a friend, to have the occasion referred to as a “sighting.” Like most guys of my ilk, my needs are few. I am happiest up here where it is quiet and a far remove from the self-inflicted, increasingly disturbing inanities that abound out there in the so-called real world. Lately, we have been thinking it would be nice to have a dog again. When one spends so much time alone, it is nice to have a companion unburdened by human concerns. These days there are so many competing realities that the traditional notion of reality I grew up with is an anachronism. I am not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but I do think our not coming to some kind of agreement about the nature of reality, as well as factuality, puts us in an existential bind.