My dog, Rocco, hates the dog next door. For no reason. I mean, he goes bananas with just a whiff of him walking by the house. Bananas! It’s inexplicable. My neighbors dog is a super sweet golden retriever. Loves everybody. Really friendly and calm… Rocco HATES him. We tried to figure out what was happening. Did the neighbor dog smell just like a dog that use to kick the crap out of Rocco before we rescued him? (He came from the streets. He’s pretty gangster.) Did he look like a dog from his past? Or is Rocco an emotionally, magically intuitive genius and he can tell that the sweet golden retriever next door is secretly a total asshole? (Less likely.) Before you answer that or send me a million articles about dog behavior, just give me a sec.
To me the real lesson here is sometimes we just don’t know. We can try to guess what’s happening inside someone else but the truth of the matter is we just don’t know. It could be anything. Crappy behavior can come from a wellspring of sources. Pain, sadness, fear… you name it. But I think the last place it comes from is just straight heartlessness. Now, don’t get me wrong. By no means am I preaching from the pulpit of peaceful acceptance and non judgement. I’m working on it everyday. Cuz it’s work, baby. But maybe next time we’re about to judge or convict someone with the jury of one in the courtroom of our heart, we pause for a second and realize that we don’t know. We want to think we know… but we don’t.
It may offer that one brief moment of change where a negative vibe use to live and a way cooler one might plop itself down instead. There’s a good chance Rocco’s just an asshole too. Never!
