We Lie With Every Breath We Draw

“What we, or at any rate what I, refer to confidently as memory—meaning a moment, a scene, a fact that has been subjected to a fixative and thereby rescued from oblivion—is really a form of storytelling that goes on continually in the mind and often changes with the telling. Too many conflicting emotional interests are involved for life to be wholly acceptable, and possibly it is the work of the storyteller to rearrange things so that they conform to this end. In any case, in talking about the past we lie with every breath we draw.

William Maxwell, So along, See You Tomorrow

I used to hear people say, “in the end, the guy with the most toys wins.” Wins what? I don’t believe that. I believe the one with most memories wins. Life is for living. Use it or lose it. Make the most of what you have. There are always ways one can have a positive effect.

If you are caught up in the winter blues, incapacitated by fear of the Orange Menace, heartbroken by the devastation of the Fires in LA, you have to move and do something to keep going. Who can you help? Helping others will take your mind off yourself. Give and you will get. Make new memories.

I made a new memory this past weekend. I was walking our rental dog Scarlet. Let me back up. She is not really a rental, she is more of a rescue. About ten pounds wet, she belongs to my brother-in-law who has left her with us for 5 weeks. I guess the correct term is dog sitting.

Our Maisy died last May, so we have been dogkess for about 7 months. Scarlet, like our 16 year old senior Maisy, is a rescue dog, but where Maisy came from a northern BC reservation, Scarlet reserved a place in our hearts from her Mexican birthplace.

What kind of dog is Scarlet? I am unsure if the breed but they are almost ubiquitous. Scruffy, quick, lighter than air, Scarlet is all eyes and vinegar. Could it be I’m falling in love?

We were out walking, which unlike poor dying Maisy, is a brisk walk, barely stopping to sniff, sometimes chasing a squirrel up the tree, but easily willing to let it go and move on.

Miss Maisy never let go of anything. She has the patience of a true hunter, waiting hours to get at a rat, or to kill a bird hovering near the apartment deck. She once famously killed a bird and left it on my daughter’s bed, recreating the famous scene from The Godfather. A dead bird is not a horse’s head, but the shock effect was similar, and her scream was authentic.

So yesterday I was walking Scarlet, and we saw a coyote in the middle of the road some twenty feet away. I gathered her up in my arms, even though she was struggling to be put down, and began to quickly walk away, pausing every seven steps to look behind us at the coyote.

The coyote was now in the middle of the intersection, staring intently but in no particular direction.

This is not a shot of the actual coyote. This was no time for telephone photography. We just kept walking. At the end of the block, I could no longer see the coyote. I saw another guy with his dog, so I walked across the street to warn him.