The Ding : Ding Aling has his Review

Demon Dog

Yup, this post is about Axel. The once cute and helpless little pup has grown into a veritable demon dog today. Guess his favorite game? If you said, chase down the powerless human maggots and take a bite out of them, well then you guessed right!!!

He means no harm...I guess its the way I'm raising the fellow. Axel has a strong animal streak running deep within, or just under the layer. It depends on how much of the animal Axel sees in you. One of my new games is to come in real close and look him in the eye.

To a dog, staring them in the eye is a sign of aggression...and there's a good chance the dog will lunge at you. Now, Axel is a sweetheart but he will rise to the challenge. There have been a few instances where he almost got my eye when we were playing at wrestling. Here's a snapshot of what one bite from Axel can do...

Then again, I like him to be this way. I believe that an animal is always so much more honest than a human. There is a purity to its actions, a freedom which most of us have forgotten. Axel bites when he wants to, he plays when he wants to and when he licks you, its because he loves you. It's as simple as that. There are no hidden strings or ulterior motives. It's always true. For the most part, I have lost faith in human beings. There is something so artificial about all of us. There is a very real part of us that has been lost and all that remains is an acerbic imitation.

Know what I hate above all?

I hate posers. I hate people who just cannot accept who they are. Maybe I overreact to things, but posers irk me. I believe that whatever your shortcoming, the method of getting better begins with understanding who we are and where we are at this moment. Can you, at the moment of reading this post, stand up right now(wherever you are) and shout your name? Will you go to bed tonight feeling everything went right today? Will you search for yourself in others?

I know people in my life who fall at extreme ends of the human scale. I know people who have battled incredible odds to be the successful people they are today and on the other end I know the whiners who have everything they need except the will and self-discipline to achieve something.

I know people who've refused to give up in the face of unsurmountable odds, and I know people who fail before they've begun. There are people who had no potential and no hope, but they are far happier people today because they tried...and true to human behavior, when they found a boundary (i.e. their limit), they pushed at it and succeeded. We can never overcome what we do not know. We can never defeat that which we do not challenge. We can never be anyone more than who we choose to be. Adversity brings out the best in some of us and breaks the rest of us.

In the face of our greatest fear, some of us find how noble we truly are, even if we never knew it ourselves and then there are those that choose to let the fear rule their lives. It is in the attempt for glory that we fall apart at our seams, and that which is inside us comes to light. In some of us, that which is inside is so much brighter than the dull confines of the human condition and in some of us we find the hubris, the arrogance, the darkness, the fear and the failure that define the human species.

I hate people who don't believe. They are already dead to everything there is in the world. These are the voices that tell you something is impossible. These are the people who have never tried and want to discourage something unique in you. These are the people who know the cost of everything, but not the value of anything. These are the people who have forgotten how to dream. They need people to tell them what to do, why it needs to be done and how to do it. There is no inner voice, no destiny for these people except to dance to the bidding of people who need no guidance.

I hate injustice. I hate the strong oppressing the weak. I hate the attempt to subjugate those who mean you no harm. I hate the man who beats a dog for no reason other than his perverse pleasure. I cannot abide by the rantings of the social police, hoodlums who beat the law-abiding citizen into submission, the drunk husbands of our glorious nation, the corrupt bureaucrats and in some situations, the shackles of society. Where do we get off standing tall among 50 when there is a single opponent who will not bow down? I cannot, and I will not, be among the silent mindless horde.

The manifesto of the human being is a work in progress. But the vision is clear -

"Stay the course. In the face of temptation and fear, failure and rejection, horror and disappointment, stay the course."