What I See

"What is the difference between choking and panicking? Why are there dozens of varieties of mustard but only one variety of ketchup? What do football players teach us about how to hire teachers? What does hair dye tell us about the history of the twentieth century?" -From the back of the CD case, What the Dog Saw by Malcom Gladwell



I'm listening to an interesting book these days, another one of my great library finds, What the Dog Saw.  Malcolm Gladwell, author of What the Dog Saw, also wrote the bestselling book, The Tipping Point, which I read a few years ago. In both books Gladwell exhibits his intense curiosity about many things in our society that we may consider ordinary and commonplace. He has a gift of finding a good story behind things such as condiments, the Chop-o-Matic, pasta sauce, and rotisserie chickens.  Gladwell has been a staff writer for The New Yorker for about twenty years, and all of the essays in What the Dog Saw were first published in the magazine. So, What the Dog Saw is a collection of essays by the England-born writer about a variety of things that he has observed in society. Gladwell is a very inquisitive investigator who gets to the core of such topics as the original birth control pill and what the Catholic church said about it, popular gadgets that revolutionized how things were done in the kitchen, and the success of the "dog whisperer," Cesar Millan. I was interested in the background of Cesar because I have seen him on TV. Gladwell reports that at the age of 21, Cesar left Central America for a better life in California. His first job was to clean and detail limousines, but he immediately began to train dogs out of his car as well. Today we know him as a sort of magical dog trainer who can calm even the meanest of dogs. He admitted early on in his career that he knew how to relate to animals better than he could relate to people, so he had to work on the latter. He noted that in Mexico, dogs were dogs and people were people, but in the U.S. he believed that dogs were treated more like children. That explains some of the problems that people have with their pets.

I like the title of this book. It's a simple title but it's "catchy" and can lead to a wide variety of interpretations. I'm guessing that Gladwell called his essay about the "dog whisperer," "What the Dog Saw" and thus he used it again for his collection of essays that he put together for the book. When I think of what a dog sees, I think of a very simple daily routine of eating, sleeping, requests for affection, etc. But what does life seem to be from the perspective of a dog? What gives the dog meaning and purpose? What does a dog observe each day as he silently looks at cars, people, household items, and an empty food bowl? We can only guess.

But I can talk about things that I see. I see Nilla's big brown eyes telling me that she loves me. She seems to appreciate how I take care of her. She was an abandoned puppy who found a loving home where she could be taught, loved, and cared for. I see a beagle-mix who knows my routines and knows the word "bath." So she's really quite intelligent. I also see some amazing children in my job as an E.S.L. teacher. They are loving, honest, and bright, and their humor is unending. These children basically want to have what Nilla has, but they also need to learn as much as they can to prepare them for the real world as an adult. They need an education so that people don't take advantage of them. But they cannot be forced to learn, because I they must be loved first. So let's love them, and THEN teach them, and they will do their best for us. I see so many things each day, like the lady who walks up Guess Road early in the morning, all bundled up to walk to the bus stop. I can't help but wonder where she is going, and how long it will take her to get there on Durham's public bus system. Today I saw something I'd never seen here in Durham before, a priest dressed in a long black robe with a large crucifix around his neck. No, I didn't see him near a Catholic church, I saw him coming out of "Great Clips." This 40-something man needed a hair cut just like everyone else, and he needed to be frugal like the rest of us. It was just something that I had never observed before. Next time I'll talk about other things that I have observed throughout my days.

Today I did something unlike myself, I ordered three books. So I'm going to submerge myself in books based in France once again. I ordered The Little Paris Bookshop: A Novel, The French House: A quirky and inspiring memoir about turning a ruin into a home, and Hidden in Paris. I can't wait for these books to arrive! Meanwhile I'll see what I have on my shelf.

Have a warm, restful weekend,
Melissa Hill
Book Blogger
www.onegoodbookblog.blogspot.com