Pick Up (your dog’s) Poop
Daily Meditation #231–10/11/2022
You got the dog.
You knew exactly what you signed up for.
What part of picking up warm, soft, smelly dog poop with a thin plastic’d and unfortunate produce bag could you possibly say “I had no idea!” to about dog ownership?
It’s widely known that dogs poop. In case you didn’t know, you do now.
Perhaps even more widely known is that it is not just “good etiquette” to pick it up, but also can be wildly expensive to be fined for.
But.
We aren’t here to educate you on dog poop.
There are many things in our lives that we willingly — and often unconsciously — accept responsibility for.
Paying our bills.
Cleaning our homes.
Showing up to work.
Giving our children attention and mental nourishment.
Ensuring our dog doo is picked up.
But we all often fall short on our responsibilities.
We put off vacuuming for a day.
We skip combing our cat for a week.
We wash the laundry on Monday. Dry it on Tuesday. Bring it upstairs Wednesday. Then we live off the unfoldeds for a day and finally fold them Friday.
You don’t need to strive for perfection every day.
But, you do need to acknowledge that failures in small responsibilities snowball into larger ones.
Not everything you do every day is going to make you bristle with joy or excitement.
I certainly don’t struggle to sleep like a 5-year-old on Christmas Eve over the prospect of brushing my teeth…
But I do it. Every day, at least twice.
Even when (you think) no one is watching, you’ve got to stick to your responsibilities. Even when you really, really don’t feel like it.
So, don’t leave your dog poop on someone’s boulevard.
That someone is probably your neighbor.
That boulevard is probably your neighborhood.
It’s unpleasant, wet, smelly, and probably disgustingly warm to the touch, even through the bag…
But it’s your dog. It’s your neighborhood. It’s your responsibility.
Own it.
Follow for daily philosophical meditations.
These are distillations from my coming book “YouDaimonia: the Ancient Philosophy of Human Flourishing.”
