Dog Days
Cousin Steve writes in with this stress-alleviating pooch story.
Now, I'm a modern person in most ways, but I think we've derailed, in post-WWII America, from the lifestyle elements that made our ancestors happy and fit. While I'm overwhelmingly glad that we've gotten rid of TB and bad food-preparation hygiene, brought domestic abuse out of the shadows and are combating it, and through education and modern urban centers have enabled a more fulfillling intellectual life, some elements of that old lifestyle resonate with the core of what it is to be human: unstructured interaction between the oldest and youngest members of society, a combination of work and play intertwined in our daily lives, the absence of strict segmentation between daily spheres of activity, and especially, my favorite pet peeve, the afternoon nap (all of our ancestors on the African savannah, and the creatures till living there now, are designed for the aftersnooze -- we should bring it back!)
Bringing dogs into classrooms, or the elderly and day care centers together, and enmeshing parents into the schools, goes against Skinner-like "scientific reasoning", which was simply scientific bias masquerading as fact, and creates healthier environments for all. We've already discovered that our manufactured food products and modern eating habites -- enriched wheat flour, processed foods -- lead to cheaper eats but fatter, unhealthier people. It's time to discover and disseminate widely the same learnings about lifestyles.
