Sabbo asks: Define capitalist democracy
Hi Sabbo –
Wow, you’re asking a dog to define capitalist democracy? You’re a trusting soul!
Well, Democracy is a form of government, mainly from ancient Greece, based on the idea that the people are in charge. Members of the group (such as citizens of a country, or members of a club) vote to determine such things as who the leaders are, what laws are enacted, or any other major Continue reading
dumboo asks: What should be our reaction if we fail in achieving something?
Hi dumboo –
There are lots and lots of ways to react when one fails at something. A few I see often are “Oh No! I give up! This is impossible!” and “I don’t believe this!” and “God hates me!” and “I suck!” and “Well I know not to try that again!”
Some others aren’t so verbal. They might involve bursting into tears, banging one’s head against a wall, or kicking someone.
Another is to immediately try doing what Continue reading
sazuna45 asks: When people date and they break up, they stop talking and they get awkward and they ignore and sometimes even hate, each other. I find that very sad. When best friends start dating and they break up, they stop being friends, they cant even look each other the same way after all that. Don’t you find that sad? Do you think its normal for people to act that way? But most importantly, is it okay if past lovers stay friends? Do you think they can remain friends?
Hi sazuna45 –
Your timing is perfect.
You see, Handsome’s had a lot of girlfriends over the years. I always like them at first, but some weren’t so crazy about me, so I learned to stay away from them (and eventually, so did Handsome!). But of course, at least at the beginning, he was nuts about all of them.
Now most of the time, when they broke up, it was the way you describe. Not necessarily that he hated her or she hated him, but they learned that they were happier keeping some distance from each other.
I guess I both understand and don’t Continue reading
kavin24 asks: Some schoolmates and I are in an international school project called World Link Society. The topic they have given to our school is natural disasters. So this year we are planning to publish a magazine and a CD. But for now it’s just an idea. Can you give us some tips on it? The CD is ok, but we really need to know all about the magazine. Can you send some suggestions as soon as possible? If you can do it right now, you’ll be the most intelligent dog in the world!
Hi kavin24 –
Thanks for your question about the magazine. I’m sorry I wasn’t able to get to it the day you sent it to me – especially since I guess that makes another dog more intelligent than me (Darn that Lassie!).
The big deal with the magazine idea is whether you intend for it to be one issue or an ongoing magazine. One issue is WAY Continue reading
prettyndsweet12 asks: Do you have any tips on controlling jealousy?
Hi prettyndsweet12 –
Jealousy is one of the most powerful emotions we have. Note the word “we.” We dogs can be very jealous – as any pooch who Handsome’s ever found adorable and cuddly has learned! “RRROOOWFF! I’ll teach you to let him scratch your belly!!”
All cultures have stories of jealousy. In The Bible, the first kids ever born have enough jealousy between them that one kills the other! That’s some nasty stuff!
I really like your question, because you didn’t ask how to get rid of jealousy (which is impossible), but how to control it. And that’s something anyone can do.
The trick is to realize that jealousy actually comes from a Continue reading
mouse asks: My cousin’s 9-year-old sister is too stubborn. She doesn’t even regret that she has failed so many papers, she doesn’t listen to her mom or dad, and she talks rudely. She believes that no one loves her, although her parents get her everything – she just seems to follow something in her mind. Please help!
Hi mouse –
I have to admit, I’m a bit confused about this girl! First of all, what sort of papers is a nine-year-old assigned to write? Second, why are her parents giving her ‘everything,’ when she doesn’t listen to them? And third, does she believe that no one loves her because… no one does? I’ll try to answer your question, but this is tough material.
It sounds to me like this girl has some real issues with her parents. They’re giving her lots of stuff, but not giving her the boundaries she needs. She sounds confused and unsure of what to do, and VERY unhappy about it.
You see, it’s a kid’s job to see what they can Continue reading
What the Hell (Part Two) …views on the present and the future
I really appreciate the letters I got in response to my question about the “end of the world” movies and TV shows out there. No two were alike, which seems to say that there’s a lot behind the popularity of this theme.
Jazzbo writes: It’s funny that you ask this Shirelle, because my friends and me were just talking about how much our junior high school feels just like The Walking Dead. We’re the “humans” in it, and we’re surrounded by these mindless jocks, dorks who spend all day in video games, and yes the druggies – all of them are “walkers” (or zombies) to us. Maybe to you that show seems strange and off, but to us, for one hour a week, it feels like we’re understood by the world, and we can understand the world.
Wow, I can relate to that. I’m so often the outsider, especially when I’m surrounded by humans (like if Handsome has people over), and I often wonder why they’re so weird – why they’re not doing the things I’d do if I were them, like sniffing each other’s butts or jumping on each other, or eating all the food at once. And I know that teenagers often feel just that way about the other kids at their schools. I hope this doesn’t mean that you’re going to adopt a policy of shooting them in the brains, but I do understand!
Lucan writes: Shirelle I always thought you were a smart dog, but I think you’re naive about this. The world IS coming to an end! The movies about the end of times are here because we all know it’s just about to happen. Global warming’s going to destroy our farms (it’s already happening); overpopulation’s going to lead to starvation and horrible wars; we’ve put chemicals in our air, our water, and our bodies that we don’t know what they’re gonna do; and all these wars in the Middle East – it’s just exactly what was predicted would happen. Tell your friend Handsome to start praying for his soul, because this is world is about to explode.
This is the letter I most expected. And Lucan, I would love to tell you that I know you’re wrong, but of course I can’t. All those problems that you list are real, and could make things far worse than they are. But I do have one argument to offer, which is that humans have predicted the end of the world countless times over the years, and have always been wrong. The Black Plague didn’t do it. Assorted events where religions predicted it haven’t happened. World War II and the invention of the Atomic Bomb didn’t do it. So while it’s always possible that it still could happen, I want to impress on you – the odds are very very high that the world might just continue, no matter how many ways humans conspire to make it more difficult to live in. Similarly, although governments and political systems may change over time, fundamentally, people, and the way certain cultures like to run themselves, tend to stay pretty much the same. So while we’ll see big shifts (like, most clearly today, the many changes in Egypt over the last few years), but nothing like the world of “The Hunger Games.”
Speaking of which…
LaVaM writes: Thanks for asking about “The Hunger Games.” I have an answer for you: it is my life. I feel just like Katniss. I also have a little sister who I want to take care of, and would be happy if the world would just leave us alone so we could hunt and find food, but being a teenage girl today is horrible, Shirelle. Be glad you’re a dog. Just like Katniss, I’m expected to dress to shine (even when I just want to hide and be invisible), I’m supposed to smile and pretend to love all the people who control my world, and now, when I get out of school, I’m supposed to go join the rat race and compete against all my friends and try to destroy them. These are the best books ever written, as far as I can tell. They tell my story anyway.
I find this so distressing! And I’ll bet lots and lots of girls feel just this way. Their problem isn’t that they’re scared the world might turn into the “Hunger Games” setting; they feel like it’s already there. And for all the giant leaps that women have made in the last 50 years, it’s so sad that the pressure of “Be pretty, smile, and don’t have an opinion” still survives. I hope you, my beloved readers, are ready to do what you can to change this nonsense.
And last, but by no means least, Ellie writes:
I am sadly one of those people who actually want something like what’s happening in The Hunger Games to happen and never have really thought about why. And finally I have come up with reasons.
Firstly, the children of this generation want to do something with their lives instead of playing computer games and having programs tell you you’re a hero (even after failing many times) and put their name out there. You only live once after all.
Secondly, we want something different and interesting happen to the world, just so we can do something interesting that the world can know about, feel glory, save the world, have people talking about you in legends for thousands of years.
Next, nowadays i think we all have a lack of hope and if something disastrous happens we have a chance to spread our hope and be the person that kept on believing.
Finally, us who stay hunched over our computer everyday playing video games, those shy kids, want their chance to come out of their shells and act like a total badass without anybody making fun of them or freaking out because they are wearing armour and a crossbow slung over our shoulders.
I hope this helped you understand. Games I play give people creative minds to write inspiring paragraphs like I just tried to do when Im half awake.
There is so much here. If there’s anything sadder than someone thinking they live in the “Hunger Games” world, it must be someone who wishes she did. But your points make sense, Ellie.
But I’m going to try to talk you out of them anyway – and you can probably guess just how:
Ellie, and all of you: you DO live in a world where you can be heroic. The problems Lucan lists are all things you can devote yourself to helping. Maybe you won’t become world-famous (though you might), but if you can do even a small part to help the world get better, you have achieved greatness. Now if you want to be talked about in a thousand years, that’s a higher task, and it really requires you to work incredibly hard (Just think – how many people can you name who were around in 1013?!). You’d have to do something no one had ever done before. Even Katniss probably isn’t achieving anything that big (though I don’t know what happens in the second or third book!). Be the first person on Mars, write the greatest story ever, or a song that will last for eternity. I don’t know if you can do it, but I do know that no one has more chance than you – any of you – to be the one who can!
LaVaM, you probably can’t change the whole culture, and the way it treats teenage girls. But maybe you can change something in your school, or even just in your family. But if you just dress down or sulk, that won’t really change anything – people will just pay less attention to you, and notice the “shinier” girls more. But what if you excel at something else? What if you’re a great athlete, or write something amazing, or do something to save your sister? People will take notice! About fifty years ago an actress said a famous line in a movie: Another character said to her she wasn’t beautiful enough to become a star and she answered, “You think beautiful girls are going to stay in style forever? I should say not! Any minute now they’re going to be out! Finished! Then it’ll be my turn!” It’s a cute line in the movie – but the fact that it was said by the brand-new actress Barbra Streisand, who’s still a superstar half a century later, even with non-Hollywood looks… yeah it kind of rings true.
So what I really want to say to you all is – Don’t Give Up! Yes, all the problems you talk about are real, but you can do something to help change them! Back around the time Streisand was playing that role on Broadway, another not-classically-beautiful star-in-the-making sang these words: “There’s been rumors of war and wars that have been / The meaning of the life has been lost in the wind / And some people thinkin’ that the end is close by / ‘Stead of learnin’ to live they are learning to die.”
Well, I don’t want you learning to die! I want you – my Pack, the coolest most fantastic incredible wonderful group of humans ever – to embrace this life, and to take the right lessons from all these stories out there. If you’ve seen “This Is the End,” then great, do what it says: Refuse to Be a Jerk! If you’ve seen “Pacific Rim,” work, like they do, with others to save the planet, by Refusing to be overcome by jealousies. You’re a “Walking Dead” fan? Then great – LIVE! Use that glorious brain and body you’ve got: Run and laugh and get angry and fall in love and cry and learn and sing and kickbox and give too much money to someone who’s hungry and write an angry letter to a politician and kiss a stray dog (Kiss lots of dogs, and rub our tummies too). There is such a thing as contagious zombiedom – but it doesn’t come from being bitten by a zombie; it comes from letting yourself live like one! Refuse! Refuse! Be an animal instead!
And if you are (and how could you not be) a fan of “The Hunger Games,” then do what Katniss does. Look at the crazy world around you and REFUSE to obey its rules when they’re wrong. Live by your heart, by your love, by your fury. Be better than the world around you. Do good when the world says to do nothing. Be kind when the world says not to care. Be loving when the world says to hate.
And if you can do this, my dear dear friends – if you can take all the fear and negativity and hopelessness that’s out there, and turn it into hope and love and action… you will prove yourself the greatest bunch of humans ever.
And maybe, just maybe, that will be remembered a thousand years from now.
So… LIVE!
dumboo asks: What will happen if we start following others?
Hi dumboo –
When we are young, following others is pretty much all we do.
Who do I mean by “we?” Well, we dogs definitely follow our mothers and siblings when we’re very young, and when we get interested in a human, we’ll follow you everywhere, all day long! Have you ever watched ducklings? They swim in a nearly perfect line behind their mothers when in water, and walk right behind her as well on land.
And you humans? When you are babies, your primary focus is on your caregivers – whether your parents or someone else – and trying to learn how to be like them. That’s how humans learn to walk and talk, probably the two most Continue reading
Salvatore asks: As you know, my father died a few months ago. Now, whenever my friends talk about their dads, I feel that something is burning inside me. I don’t know exactly what it is, but I think it may be jealousy. Please tell me how to overcome this feeling.
Hi Salvatore –
I have written about jealousy a few times. Usually it’s about romantic jealousy, which can be anything from heartbreaking to fun to, as we know, murderous!
But the jealousy you talk about is something very different. What happened to your father – and to you and the rest of your family – is absolutely unfair. There’s nothing you have done – or could have done – to deserve this pain. And when you hear other kids talk about their fathers, there’s no way it won’t hurt.
Though, of course, unless they’re purposely trying to make you feel bad, this isn’t their Continue reading
Cookie Vidal asks: I’m 12 and my brother is 17, and he always blames me for things that I didn’t do, like putting bones in the sink. I’m getting sick and tired of him blaming me, so how do I make him stop?
Hi Cookie Vidal –
Remember a while back, when you asked me about your brother’s airheaded irresponsibility, and I said to accept it as a phase, and not feel that he’s a bad guy in any way? Well, I’m starting to change my opinion.
You see, we dogs don’t lie. It’s not that we’re too moral (we’re NOT!); it’s that we simply can’t. Our brains don’t work that way. Because of this, there’s a lot of confusion in our dealings with humans.
The most common example is when kids play fetch with us, and tease us by pretending to throw the ball and not actually letting go of it. We run to chase it, and can’t find it. The kids laugh at our confusion. Now if they do it once, it’s not a problem, but if they do it more, we begin to think that their making that throwing motion doesn’t mean a ball is coming, so we stop responding to that sight. We don’t have any sense of the child’s joke, because we don’t think that way. So then the kid wants to really play fetch again, and it doesn’t work, because we’re not responding the way we have to in the Continue reading