ON FEELING DIMINISHED

     It helps, when you’re feeling diminished, to rationalize. Rationalization never hurt anyone, provided it is restricted to how you feel with respect to the world around you. Rationalizing bad action..... well that's another matter. In the former case, a little thought might put an entirely new and bright perspective on what otherwise might leave one dour and fitful.

    Just to illustrate, let me cite the experience of walking my dog. He’s a rescue, but that had nothing to do with his being big and handsome, a Ridgeback mutt with the gait and bearing of a lioness. But the comments I get: “What a handsome dog!” “What a beautiful  dog,” leave me  without adequate words in reply. What can I say? “Thank you”?  I really had nothing to do with it. Sometimes I smile and answer, “Well, he can’t help it.”  Eventually, I run out of comments, so I simply stand mute when it is obvious the sole attraction is the dog, who stolidly accepts pats on the head and  neck rubs.

    But never do I hear the words: “What a handsome man!” “What a beautiful man!”  So I wait, impatient to get moving, while the dog grins up at me in a self assured manner. Well, there was that one case, but in all candor I must admit that the person wore glasses, and there was no way to know what she actually saw.

    So here is where the rationalization takes place. There is something called acceptance. Alcoholics know about this. A little thought will then lead you to taking an entirely different perspective on the above situation. Let’s just say you are walking the dog down the way to the woods where he does his daily thing and across the street a pair of groomed white poodles on leashes gripped by a nondescript dog walker lift their heads toward you. You imagine one poodle saying to the other: “Scruffy dog. But what a handsome man!”