Two things happened recently: I discovered the beautiful art of Daniel Mitsui, and i finally bought and learned how to operate a lawn mower.
Daniel Mitsui's beautiful illustrations, which so poignantly depict Saint Michael and his army fighting the eternal fight between good and evil, might have overstimulated my little dog's imagination.
But what does Saint Michael and his army have to do with a lawn mower, you say?
Well! As i spent a couple of hours outside, sweating buckets and getting grass clippings all over the place, including in my hair (i foolishly let the bag overfill), my poor little dog was stuck in the house, freaking out about the awful roaring that he heard outside. He’s so small, he cannot reach most windows…
When i came back in, beaming with the joy of having tackled that chore for the very first time in my life, my pooch misinterpreted that victorious grin. Here's what i saw and "heard" in his over ecstatic song and dance of welcome:
"Ma'am! Ma'am! You prevailed?! You killed that dragon that i heard roaring? It sounded terrible! Like those pictures we saw the other day! Oh my! Ma'am! I was so scared! Was it a green dragon? I'm sure it was green, look! You have clumps of its hair all over you! I knew it! You beat it! I knew that Saint Michael and his friends would come to help you! Ma'am, I'm so glad that you are safely back home!!!”
My little dog is amazing. Dogs are amazing. Sometimes i think that some of them truly are gifts from God, little helpers for our guardian angels, possibly sent here to respectfully take in and honor all those sorrowful unrequited words of love that leak and spill over from the broken hearts of us lonely people. Words of love that, with their gentle nudging, we are reminded to offer to Jesus, our Lord and Saviour, who was the loneliest of us all, up there on that cross.
But of course this lawn mower dragon story, my dog's truth, is not the truth, even though the smile it brought on my face was quite real.
What's the point of all this?
When we can, let's savour small opportunities to fuel our courage and see God's glory, humour and joy in the most ordinary moments;
But let's remember what's real and what's not. We are men and women, made in the image of God. We are NOT little dogs. We have reason, free will and an eternal soul that God trusts us with. We cannot affirm lies as being "my truth", just because it makes us feel good, and then expect reality to conform to our delusions. Lysenko tried that and it didn't quite work out as planned. (Or did it?!)
Let's remember that the next time we are told that alcohol stores are essential, but Mass is not. Let's remember that, the next time we are forced to walk on inclusive language eggs. Let's remember that the next time…