Love Me, Love My Dog
Qui me amat amat et canem meam
—Possibly the original Latin version of this phrase, except probably not.
I discovered this phrase when I was studying Latin in high school. It stuck in my mind because of how different it is from...well, pretty much everything else we had read from the ancient Romans. A few of my friends and I had devoted ourselves (briefly and humorously) to cataloging every verb in Latin that was a way to kill someone, until we realized that would be like cataloging every snowflake in a blizzard.
Sure, the Romans also wrote about love and science and engineering and politics, but these all seemed to end up back in the “ways to murder people” camp. (Cicero: genius orator. Brilliant politician. Changed the nature of political discussion for millennia. Cause of death: beheaded, had his hands and tongue nailed to a podium.)
So when we found the simple statement that to love a Roman you must also love that roman's dog, it was a whole different thing. There wasn't any death in there at all. Just a very human and very recognizable emotion. Dogs are good. Mostly. Sure they sometimes smell bad, and occasionally they do bad things in the house, or to the house, or on the house.
Since I've become an adult with my own house and my own dogs, I've come to realize how relatable this really is. Everyone loves their dog, and if you want to be friends with someone you make friends with their dog as well. so I know most of the dogs in my neighborhood by name. And what's even nicer is that my neighbors know my dogs as well.
It's a little thing, but it's a bond that keeps us all human.
I’m publishing this as part of 100 Days To Offload. You can join in yourself by visiting 100 Days To Offload.
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