give me arms to pray with instead of ones that hold too tightly

To our dismay, the artist and author Marjane Satrapi has passed away.

As she wrote, ordinary Americans and Iranians have more in common with each other than we do with either of our governments, which have far too much in common with each other.

"am i normal" is not as helpful question to ask as "are intrusive thoughts causing me frequent distress?" and "would my life be better if i could find a way to feel less distress/learn to tolerate the distress?"

And how she's now used those gloves for over thirty winters and each time she puts them on, she gets to pet her beloved dog's fur even though Ginger is long gone. And how even though her bones have long since been swallowed by the earth, Ginger is still protecting her owner from the cold.

so my solution for this specific problem has been to have a way to cue "I need your attention/we need to keep moving" that isn't speaking sharply or leash pressure. I use a high whistle a lot of the time, and Glimmer's previous foster trained a "not your business" cue and a "where's your body?" cue that both redirect her attention to the immediate environment or to me. although it is not your intent, you're essentially using aversive stimuli to ask your dog for something, and if you can work together to install a "hey friend I need you to stay with me right now!" subroutine that's not aversive, you'll both be a lot less frustrated, I think!

Here's an amazing story about him that I read years ago and never forgot.

I'd hoped to meet him at a convention, myself, one day.

I keep remembering these lines from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

‘what do you want me to say?’

‘Lie to me.’