While visiting my parents recently an older gentleman on a scooter rode up and greeted me. We had a friendly conversation within the confines of my parents’ gated community. He said his dog had mistaken me for his son. I looked down and saw a small dog or large rodent sniffing my shoes. Then his son emerged from the house. The son was quite animated as he was taking a smoke break from his online gaming.
The next morning I saw the son again. He was pedaling his bicycle slowly, smoking, and looking rather like a homeless man. He didn’t seem to recognize me.
I found myself thinking I felt reassured that the older gentleman’s very small dog obviously had a very small brain.
But who am I to say whom or what I do or do not resemble. Maybe I’m more like a gaming and smoking homeless man on the street than I think. After all, I can’t see myself very well anyway.
This is the nature of my internal conversations. A swing towards the too critical and too judgmental followed by a swing back toward self-critique.
This might be why B.F. Skinner suggested that thinking is irrelevant.
This also might be why I have a blog and not a dog.
John Sommers-Flanagan 
I know what you mean about there about judgment and keeping blogs instead of dogs. Buddhism would suggest we should drop all judgments: better / worse, more / less. Yet sometimes judgment is also important….
One of the things we have discussed in IYFD. is: How come we can be so tolerant of people in other cultures, talking about adapting to the beliefs of host cultures. Yet here I am in southern Lousiana, struggling with my own judgments – I just cain’t let go of those judgments about folks who base their sense if reality on Fox News… Oops, caught in my own inconsistencies again.
Ah. Consistency is the hobgobin of little minds.
Most of my internal judgements are so embarrassing that I leave them internal.
I hope your travels are fabulous!
J
The dog may have been “sniffing you out” (thinking that you were the man’s son) to keep an eye on you/the man’s son….[John, I over think things out too~ the alternative is not having any thoughts at all :> ]
Have a fantastic day!
you definitely don’t resemble any smoking homeless men I’ve met 🙂
Haha. Thank you. Then again, your brain is much larger than that little dogs.
I hope you and Chad are doing great. How goes the new parenting? Getting any sleep?
John