Don't Be That Droopy Dog Owner

One evening when our granddaughter Emma was staying with us last summer, I happened to look out the window as a significantly out-of-shape woman who was maybe 30 years-old stared at her phone as she stood on the apartment lawn across the street holding a leash for a Basset Hound.

The dog would try to head down the sidewalk, but the woman just stood there holding him back by that leash.

I started to make comments about the woman being mean to her "Droopy Dog," which brought Emma over to watch. We observed this sedentary drama unfold for fifteen minutes.

Perhaps this woman told herself she was spending loving time with her dog while getting some exercise, but she was only looking at her phone.

Droopy Dog kept trying to walk down the street, but he was always held back by his owner, who was nothing more than an anchor to his best efforts.  Droopy Dog would eagerly greet pedestrians and other dogs who walked past, but his owner paid them no mind.  With his natural hangdog expression, Droopy would glance hopefully at his phone-distracted owner and then back to the passersby, seemingly embarrassed to be confined to a small patch of grass and sidewalk while others roamed freely.

The ironic twist came when it turned out that cruel pet-owner did not even live at the condo where she wanted her dog to poop.

Never reaching down to clean up after the animal, indicating a fail in one way or another, she finally jaywalked back across the street to her apartment, disrupting traffic on a busy Saturday afternoon.

She could have walked just ten yards in the direction the Basset Hound wanted to go to use a readily-available crosswalk.  She was completely disconnected from her physical reality to the bitter end.

How did this type of cell phone addiction come to pass?  How have we become so easily disconnected from the real world around us?

Pretty easily, actually.

Apps are designed to create addictions.

Computers and cell phones are wonderful ways to share time with loved ones who aren't near by or to work remotely, but we all need to make the most of the reality directly in front of us.

Cruise lines continue expanding intranet and internet connectivity on board ships to the acclaim of guests, but I think this is a mixed blessing, because unfortunately those things have become addictions removing us from the present moment where we are.  If you don't need to work remotely, try turning it all off for a day or a week.  You'll feel better and notice that Droopy Dog yanking at your leash to do something real and beneficial in the present moment.

Anyway, I found this article in the middle of an unpublished draft from last summer and wanted to at least memorialize what had been a very real shared experience for Emma and me.  Weeks later, Emma asked why my commentary made it so funny when we were just watching a woman stand there with her dog?

I think it was simply the magic of truly being there, together.