Ancient Family Tree

I grew up in a cat-centric family and wasn't much of a dog person, especially when it came to small dogs. This aversion likely stemmed from less-than-desirable interactions with dogs during my childhood. I was the kid who got really into school or band fundraisers, not for the cause but for the prizes I could earn from selling non-essential items door to door. [Side note: I once won a shiny silver tank-top puffy windbreaker with two small chest-level speakers that I could plug my Walkman into and play music from my pectoral region (it was the 1980s).] During these door-to-door slogs, I often encountered yappy small dogs that nipped at my heels, reinforcing my preference for cats.

Shortly after finishing grad school and moving to North Carolina, my wife (Shannon) convinced me to visit a small dog rescue, where we adopted our first child, a Chiweenie named Drucilla. Dru was a wise dog, an old soul, and perhaps a cosmic guardian in a dog suit.

I remember folding laundry on our bed with Dru curled up nearby. In a moment of quiet connection, Dru looked at me, and I felt as if I wasn't looking at a dog but a sentient being who just happened to be dressed as a small dog. It was as if Dru casually communicated, “They put me in this suit. What’s it like in there?” It was a subtle, tragicomic moment. Maybe it was all in my head, but in that moment, Dru and I seemed to recognize the animal roles we had been cast into. This experience changed the way I viewed non-human sentient beings.

Needless to say, I’m now a dog person. I’m also a cat person, a horse person, a stingray person, a worm person, and so on.

Connection Exercise

Humans share 90% of their DNA with cats, 84% with dogs, and 50% with trees. While the DNA is arranged differently, we still have something in common with all these life forms.

Do you have furry family members? If not, is there a nearby bush or tree? Try to tap into what you and that life form have in common. If you have a dog, for example, don’t think about the dog in anthropomorphic terms (e.g., no talking Disney dogs), but consider the space between human and dog—where the branches of our two species meet. What happens there?

If you do this exercise with a pet, it might be ideal to wait for a moment when the pet doesn’t want anything from you (e.g., food, going outside). Maybe the pet is just relaxing next to you on the couch.

What happens when you relax your mind enough to enter a space beyond human-looking-at-dog or human-looking-at-tree, but rather lifeform-sharing-DNA observing other lifeform-sharing-the-same-DNA?

Take a moment to record this encounter in any way you wish: writing, making an audio note on your phone, drawing in a sketchbook . . .

Cheers!
André