Photo by Devin Leary
We have had a lovely fall weekend, despite the fact that Denis wasn’t here. Dev and I went into the city to attend the birthday party of our longtime friend Richard LaGravenese. Richard and Denis went to college together and then Richard wrote the movie, The Ref, which Denis starred in with Kevin Spacey and Judy Davis. Since The Ref, we have remained very good friends with Richard, his wife Ann, and their daughter Lily, who is the same general age as our kids..
Lily is now a beautiful college student, majoring in musical theater and she sang “Unforgettable” to her father, which made me cry. So sweet. But it was a late night and it seriously took me all day yesterday to recover from the excitement and lack of sleep.
Now, I’m back to work on the animal book proposal. It’s easy to be inspired when surrounded by your subjects, as I am.
Photo by Devin Leary
I get lots of feedback.
Here, Snoopy is trying to slam the laptop shut onto my fingers. He doesn’t think much of my writing and believes I should get a day job.
Mark likes anything that is written about him.
Photo by Devin Leary
Many thanks to Elise, who mentioned this interesting New York Times piece in a recent comment. It was in today’s paper, and discusses the ways scientists are learning that dogs are useful, not just for the blind but for people with many disabilities. It says, in part:
“…over the last several years a growing body of evidence, culled from small scientific studies of dogs’ abilities to do things like detect cancer or seizures, solve complex problems (complex for a dog, anyway), and learn language suggests that they may know more than we thought they did. Their apparent ability to tune in to the needs of psychiatric patients, turning on lights for trauma victims afraid of the dark, reminding their owners to take medication and interrupting behaviors like suicide attempts and self-mutilation, for example, has lately attracted the attention of researchers.”
Very interesting.
Photo by Devin Leary
Well, this one doesn’t have to turn on lights or palpate my breasts for lumps or talk me off of window ledges or any of the other amazing things these fancy therapy dogs can do, but she is a great shrink.
She’s just a good listener. She doesn’t believe in telling you what to do, but, rather, she listens quietly while you wail and sob and whine and complain and she lets you come to your own resolution, in your own time. She’s like a blank canvas – allowing her patient (she just has the one – me – but I’m a full-time job) to project all her anxieties and fears and sadness onto her, which she absorbs, and reflects nothing back but an unconditional and all-abiding love. She’s a great, great shrink, and her hourly rate can’t be beat.
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