Dear Reader,
It’s not everyday you get to read thoughts of a well-read dog, so you’re in for a treat this week.
I have something special planned for next Friday as well. This Tuesday, December 14, Megan and I celebrate 25 years of marriage. Our gift to each other? We doubled a payment and paid off all seminary student loan debt - not the most romantic of anniversary presents, granted, but since silver is the traditional gift for year 25, it will be nice not paying any more of it to a loan company every month as we have for the past 10 years.
Here’s how you can celebrate our anniversary with us: on Tuesday, we plan to record a podcast in honor of our 25th - something to capture the milestone for posterity and grins - but we don’t want it to just be a lame walk down memory lane. So, we’re inviting readers to submit questions by Sunday night. They can be funny, serious, historical, philosophical, genuine, cornball - whatever you want to ask us (within reason and appropriateness).
On Monday night, we’ll review the questions but prepare answers separately; on Tuesday night, we’ll record our answers in conversation together, which should be a hoot; then, on Friday morning, I’ll include the podcast (however long or short it runs) here in Second Drafts.
Obviously, if there are no questions to answer, we’ll bag the idea completely, realize we really are pathetic to request questions that no one cared to ask, and probably see if Peaches would be up for doing a follow-up feature. And then we’ll just go out for dinner.
So, ask away. Here’s a form to make it easy (and anonymous if you desire). Thanks for playing.
And as always, thanks for reading.
Craig
P.S.: As a reminder, you’re welcome and encouraged to email me directly with feedback, ideas, links, etc. at cmdunham [at] gmail [dot] com. Just know that, unless you specifically tell me not to, I may quote you here (though it will always be anonymously).
Hot Takes
A quick look at some of the news this week:
“Transgender Swimmer Lia Thomas Is Destroying Records At Penn And Aiming To Make History” - The only thing more disturbing and sad than The Huffington Post’s attempt to normalize this story is the mental illness and shamelessness of the swimmer involved.
“A transgender swimmer on the University of Pennsylvania women’s team continued to smash records in the pool over the weekend. Lia Thomas won the 200-yard freestyle in 1:41.93 at the Zippy Invitational in Akron, Ohio, on Saturday to break the school’s all-time mark and establish the best time in the nation this season, according to the university. On Sunday, she won the 1,650 freestyle by more than 38 seconds in 15:59.71 to set another university record.”
“Lia,” whose real first name is “Will,” was born and grew up swimming as a male. In the past year, however, he has figured out that, by “identifying” as a woman, he can compete against women and blow the competition away because of basic biology.
“Thomas, who’s competing as a senior after the Ivy League canceled the previous season due to the pandemic, added: ‘Being trans has not affected my ability to do this sport and being able to continue is very rewarding.’”
I’ll bet, but what is really being accomplished here? Other than humiliating women competitors, not much. The administrations of the UPenn Athletic Department and the NCAA are enabling this man’s charade, almost as if playing make-believe with a child. This only reinforces the belief and behavior that gender-hopping in sport is and should be “normal,” not only in the mind of the confused athlete, but in the eyes of those future athletes watching for ways to get ahead. For the sake of women’s sports and the broader society at large, transgender athletes should not be allowed to invade women’s sport. For the sake of this male athlete who believes he is a woman, he needs help and therapy more than an asterisked athletic opportunity.
UPenn swimmer Will Thomas, one very confused young man. “Assisted Suicide Pod Approved for Use in Switzerland” - The old joke about Switzerland being neutral in all matters is about to officially be taken off the table with the introduction of new technology to make self-assisted suicide quick and easy.
“According to news outlet Swiss Info, a member of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation, the suicide pod, dubbed the Sarco machine, cleared legal review in the country and could start operating some time next year. The Sarco machine has been developed by international nonprofit organization Exit International, which advocates for voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide.”
The Sarco machine’s tag line? “Go with style.” All you’ll need is a 3-D printer.
“Other design considerations were to devise a system that requires:
No specialised skills or involvement.
No sourcing of difficult to obtain drugs.
No need for medical involvement eg. with the insertion of an intravenous cannula.
Those with a significant disability (eg. frailty or increasing paralysis from a disease such as MND/ ALS) would also not be disadvantaged. Activation by eye movement or voice control is anticipated.”
The argument being made here, of course, is not new: end-of-life dignity. But who are we to say in our finiteness what dignity might come as a result of leaving our death to the infinite God? Suicide is mankind’s attempt at control, not dignity.
“‘The whole thing takes about 30 seconds. Death takes place through hypoxia and hypocapnia, oxygen and carbon dioxide deprivation, respectively. There is no panic, no choking feeling…the pod can be towed anywhere for the death…including ‘an idyllic outdoor setting or in the premises of an assisted-suicide organization, for example.’”
I’m reminded of a friend who lives in Nashville who tells the story of an aging mentor who had moved to Seattle. The older man was diagnosed with what was to be a very painful cancer, but rather than try to avoid the pain and accelerate his death on his own terms, the older man called my friend to tell him he was moving from Seattle to Nashville because he wanted to show my friend how a Christian man dies. Talk about dying with dignity.
The Sarco machine - suicide at the push of a button. “When the Crime Wave Hits Your Family” - I always appreciate intellectually honest people looking for facts to see what’s true, rather than to confirm their biases. I try to do the same, despite having biases like the next guy. Maybe that’s why I enjoyed this piece by Leighton Woodhouse - a self-proclaimed “progressive” - critiquing the havoc progressive policies and politicians have wrought on American cities.
“Progressives today are passionate about dismantling the status quo, but have offered little in terms of a viable alternative. It’s a posture (San Fransicko author Michael) Shellenberger calls “left libertarianism,” and it assumes that those kinder, better, more forward-looking criminal justice systems will spontaneously emerge. The past year has given us plenty of evidence to reveal that idea as the wishful thinking it is. Remember progressives’ utopian experiment with CHAZ/CHOP, the Seattle neighborhood taken over by activists in June 2020? Once the area had been ‘liberated’ from police, it saw a five-fold increase in crime from the same period in 2019, including rape, murder, robbery, and assault. ‘The area has increasingly attracted more individuals bent on division and violence,’ the mayor said in a statement, ‘and it is risking the lives of individuals.’”
If you have the time, the whole article is worth a read.
Oakland police investigate the scene of a double homicide on East 26th Street near Highland Avenue on Sunday, May 16, 2021. These were the 50th and 51st homicides of the year. “Boebert Draws Backlash for Family Christmas Photo of Kids Posing with Guns” - Finally, in the spirit of equal-opportunity critiquing, here’s some despicable virtue-signaling from two elected Republican Representatives and their families in front of their Christmas trees (click the link to read more).
To be clear, I support the Constitutional right to bear arms, but preferably without the political worship of them by government officials. To cleanse the palette, I appreciated this piece - “What a Gun Is For” - from Atlantic writer Liz Bruenig (she of a brand new website - nicely done, Liz).
Peaches Unleashed
If you’ve read even a few issues of Second Drafts, you know much of my time prepping for and writing the newsletter has not been accomplished alone. Peaches has been my constant companion and editor for 11 years and is as book-smart as she is street-smart (which is saying a lot considering her rough past growing up on the mean streets of south St. Louis).
Many readers appreciate Peaches’ Picks - her semi-regular book recommendations - so I asked her if she would consider contributing a feature on a topic of her choice for this week. She was glad to oblige (she usually has a bone to pick about something), so I hope you enjoy her words.
“Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly.” Proverbs 26:11
Call me foolish if you want (I have, after all, returned to my fair share of vomit in my 77 dog years), but canines are the simile and not the referent of Solomon’s observation in this passage; that is to say, humans are the folly-repeating fools the Bible alludes to here, so cool it with the patronizing pats on the head already and lend me your ears.
As an official member in good standing of the Belly Rub Club, I write today on behalf of your harried hounds with the message that they want to help you lay down, roll over, and chill. You see, I’ve heard firsthand from many of your mongrels (they don’t call it “pee-mail” for nothing) and they tell me you make them nervous - nervous that they’re in your way, or that they’re going to do something to get sent to the doghouse.
They say you seem too busy for a “welcome home” tail wag (try doing one of those for an extended period of time - they’re a workout) and spend more time with a computer than with your best friend on your lap (granted, some canine companions are too big to be lap dogs and haven’t figured that out yet). And those phones! If we could get them out of your hands, we’d bury them so deep in the backyard you’d never find them.
The point is this: when you’re home, we want to be with you. It’s who we are, why we’re here, and how God made us as dogs.
But I digress.
Squirrel!
Receiving & Reveling in Love
One of my favorite theologians, Reformer Martin Luther, wrote this about our kind:
“The dog is the most faithful of animals and would be much esteemed were it not so common. Our Lord God has made His greatest gifts the commonest.”
Believe it or not, Luther’s dog, Tolpel (sometimes called Clownie), taught him a few things about prayer and his relationship with God. For instance,
“When Luther's puppy happened to be at the table, he looked for a morsel from his master, and watched with open mouth and motionless eyes. ‘Oh,’ Luther said, ‘if I could only pray the way this dog watches the meat! All his thoughts are concentrated on the piece of meat. Otherwise he has no thought, wish, or hope.”
Now, obvious rationale for setting a place for your dog at the table aside, it’s a beautiful picture, isn’t it? We dogs are here to help you, even as you take care of us.
Like Luther’s dog (and probably yours), Dad says I teach him things - like what it’s like to receive and revel in being loved. For as long as I can remember, when Dad has said he loves me (which he does a lot), I’ve always taken him at his word and just expected to be loved because, as a dog, I don’t have any reasons or distractions not to; he’s been faithful to look after me since the first day I met him. Why would I think that would change?
Sure, there are times I fall short of his love - like when I angered him by scooting my back end across the carpet inside after I had just pooped outside. The carpet got messed up (what could I do with no opposable thumbs?), but I acknowledged what I’d done and ran to Dad, who took care of cleaning up the mess on the carpet as well as on my backside. Now in grateful response, I try to go outside whenever I can (which is often more frequent or at a time in the middle of the night that isn’t as convenient), but Dad always lets me out or gets up to take me because he knows I need his help.
I’m not perfect, and sometimes I do what I don’t want to do (or vice versa); like, for example, when I give in to temptation over and over again and incessantly bark at the delivery men when there are deliveries made to the house. Why do I hate delivery men in big trucks? It’s a heart issue - baggage from being tied to a St. Louis stop sign and abandoned as a pup, I guess. It’s about control, and the feeling of a lack thereof.
Make no mistake, my barking drives everybody nuts, doesn’t reflect well on me, and Dad has had to discipline me (two words: shock collar) more than once as a result. Thankfully, he still tells me he loves me, declares me “good” (“Who’s a good girl? Peaches is a good girl.”), and is patient as we work on the bark thing together. The good news: over time, it’s been less of a temptation when I let him hold me instead of me trying to muzzle myself. Dad says that’s another good lesson that I teach him.
Trusting, Not Pleasing
“Be thou comforted, little dog. Thou, too, in Resurrection shall have a little golden tail.”
These were also Luther’s words to Tolpel, the hope of which is definitely not lost on Dad or me. Dad says the key is to forget the familiar folly and human notion that God must be pleased rather than trusted in order to enjoy relationship with Him. I totally get and agree with that; if I didn’t trust Dad, but wasted time trying to figure out all the ways to try to please him, I would end up being the only one impressed.
But Dad doesn’t ask me to please him; he just asks that I trust him - to come knowing he has my good in mind when I’m called; to walk alongside (not too fast, not too slow) when we’re out; to ask for help when I need it; and to spend time with him, sitting on his lap, listening to his words, and always trusting that he loves me.
That’s all Dad asks of me, and my response has taught him about his own response and relationship to God. It’s funny because he sometimes says I’m better at trusting than he is, but over the past 11 years, I’ve seen him grow (mostly because he’s had to).
Remember, the only agenda we dogs have in going with you (other than to use the bathroom and check the inbox) is to be with you. Humans have love languages; dogs have lick languages, and we can’t show you love if you’re not near or never slow down.
Which brings me back to Proverbs 26:11. As you head into the holidays, don’t be like a dog that returns to the vomit of bad habits of busyness and being distant from God and others; learn from your four-legged friends and let us come alongside and teach you something about our Creator.
I double-dog dare you. As man’s best friend, it’s the leash I can do.
Fresh & Random Linkage
“U.S. Department of State Travel Advisory Levels” - Keeping an eye on this as it relates to domestic air travel and vaccination mandates over the holidays.
“The 50 Best Albums of 2021” - I've not heard of Pitchfork, nor listened to any of these albums (I didn’t even know there were 50 “best” albums released in 2021), but the fact that the #1 ranking goes to an album titled “Heaux Tales,” well, let's just say I'm not too motivated to load these up on Spotify. Geez.
Until next time.
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