jack and the woes of the world

      This week I gave Jack various kinds of food. Like most kids, Jack doesn't enjoy his vegetables, but, unlike children, Jack is not fond of most kinds of candy. However, he wants one of the only things that could possibly be his end, chocolate. 

     On day one, I was sitting on my bed, eyeing an old batch of movie theater popcorn. Not having a use for the stale stuff, I decided to give it (kernel by kernel) to the kid beside me. He loved it.

      Once Jack experimented with popcorn, I wanted to see what else he would eat. After popcorn, the obvious next choice is pop rocks. I placed a mild sized pile of pop rocks onto the ground, Jack approached, sniffed and then proceeded to eat. when the rocks took  hold of his mouth, the crackling and snapping of the atomic candy exploding in his jowls. I really expected Jack to run around in search of water, this did not occur. Instead the dog just looked up at me, paused, and walked away. This was one of the instances that I have wondered, "do dogs know more that the humans perceive?"(Observation journal). 

      The next time that Jack came into contact with human food (to my knowledge) was two days later. The location, my bed. The time, bed time. Murder weapon chocolate. (No, Jack does not die). So I was lying on my bed, pushing off sleeping. At this time The Dog, Jack, jumps on my bed, sniffs around and eventually lies down. After a little while I open a package of Twix, Jack being the young spry pooch that he is comes and asks me what I’m doing. I told Jack a saying that my grandfather told me, "curiosity killed the cat, and chocolate kills the dog".  Jack did not listen to my council, one thing lead to another and the dog was sick in the morning.

       At first glance, this is a story of a boy and his dog. But if you look at this story with metaphorical eyes, you can see the entirety of human nature. 

You see jack. The world gives him a gift (popcorn); the little dog believes that he is on the up side of life. Then the world gives you something that seems sweet on appearances, but quite literally blows up in your face (pop rocks). At this point the dog is striving for anything to go his way. He even goes as far as thievery to get what he wants (the taking of the chocolate). This bringing the pooch to his tragic downfall (again the dog is very alive).