White Dog behind White Fence

For going on six years, I have been driving my son first to high school back and forth daily, and then to his job now he has had for the past two years at a local wood products firm here in town. The road to and from the high school that also runs partially along quiet country. And for the past six years I have seen this beautiful white dog, sitting in this yard, on a lead, alone, always alone. Sometimes he just sits, looking lost, sadness in his dark eyes. I was saddened to see that all these years later the same dog was still sitting in the same yard, still alone, still sad. To have no purpose is probably the worst destiny any creature can befall, whether as an animal or a human. As a human race we sure take our time to evolve when it comes to kindness, both to our fellow man, or animal companions. Why is this so, I wonder. To be deprived of purpose, of family, whether you are a human or a gregarious animal, like a dog is living life in a solitary hell. This morning, the birds were chirping cheerfully, in anticipation of a warm spring day, and as I was getting ready to take a shower, I heard another lonely animal that lives behind our yard, howl her loneliness. I have done what I can, communicated with the family, got the local Humane Society involved, who only actually went over once, when the owners weren't home, and now when I hear the dog cry, I talk to her, soothe her, and it helps. I find it hard to accept the callousness so many people have when it comes to suffering. Indifference to suffering, to me, is the worst lack of morality, and I am not alone in feeling this way. George Bernard Shaw said : " The worst sin towards our fellow man or fellow creatures is to be indifferent. Indifference to suffering is the essence of inhumanity. " How much longer before we understand this ? It did not help that I saw a movie about the horrors of the Holocaust. I cannot think of any genocide in recent human history that is as baffling and horrifying as the Holocaust. It defies any parameters, any precedent, any and all explanation, and it happened in a part of the world that is supposed to have been past such fathomless brutality and monstrous cruelty and depravity on such a bottomless scale, organized in such a dark and meticulous way with such implacable efficiency and finality. Ten thousand years could pass and the horror of the Holocaust will not diminish in its incomprehensible vileness. What a wonderful day it will be, when we are kind to everyone we care for, every one around us, every one in our family, in our circle, and every one we meet. It does not appear to be in the near future.