My sweet friend, Paul, wonders about the eternal staying power of our dear canine (and other animal) friends.
A dog lover from the time I could walk, the story of Balto first captured my imagination as an elementary student; I was–clearly–overcome when I spied the statue in Central Park yesterday.
Instead of having a unique, embodied soul, I tell myself that our furry companions’ personalities may show up again in another pet, part of the foggy hint of the divine hidden throughout all creation.
In my husband’s senior pictures, he brought his companion, Cinder, a courageous and loving German Shepherd with somewhat unusual coloring. I never met this sweet favorite childhood dog of Jordan’s, except that when I went to a shelter in Durham a decade later, I met and adopted on the spot a courageous and loving German Shepherd with somewhat unusual coloring.
Though animals pass away like the flowers of the field, in their lives they show us the beauty of God.
BALTO – An ICON of Canine Magnificence
A dear friend, and priest of the Church, recently posted a picture of herself with a statute of Balto in Central Park in the Manhattan, New York. Using Balto as a backdrop she communicates to us all the uncanny ability to see an icon in the most ordinary of things. I suspect she knew when she posted the picture that Balto’s accomplishments were legendary and that his service brought about the inspiration for the annual sled race commonly called the “Iditarod”. I think Balto is a true Icon in that his statue represents more than a tribute to a husky sled dog. It shows something inspired by the divine. Balto did what many of us humans would shrink from doing and that is he was able to navigate near whiteout conditions (a snow storm) to deliver a serum desperately needed for a diphtheria…
View original post 302 more words
hope of things not seen 
