Month: July 2026

Summer is Five

I’ve already told all the best Summer stories — about how on the way to pick out our new golden retriever puppy, Red and I talked what we would name her. We went through dozens of possibilities, just like the process that led to the naming of Willow the Best Dog There Was™ before her. Willow was a character in one of our favorite TV shows.

We were going through the characters from another Joss Whedon classic, and the actresses who played them. Kaylee? Jewel? Zoe? Gina? Inara? Morena? River? Summer?

There was a long pause, and I said. “I don’t know why, but ‘Summer’ passes the choke-Warren-up test.”

There was a longer pause, and to my surprise Red replied, tearfully, “Me, too.”

And that’s how Summer became Summer.

Then I spent 45 minutes at the breeder’s house sitting on the floor and letting golden retriever puppies climb over me while I asked, “Which one of you is Summer?” It was a hard decision, but the one with the yellow collar — code name Mimosa — won the day. Summer came home about a month later.

The pups — eight girls and two boys — had been born the night of July 19 and the early morning hours of July 20, 2021. We weren’t sure exactly when our puppy was born, but the papers say July 20, which was good enough for us. 

Summer is a very kind, very loving, very strange dog. There are 10 steps down from the deck to the backyard, and she negotiates those stairs all the time. But she has never, in all these years, come down the 10 steps to the basement, no matter how much I try to coax her.

We have been through a lot together, not the least of which was losing her human mom, who died a month before Summer’s second birthday. But with her big sister Dejah, Summer has been a constant source of joy and amusement for five years now. How is it possible that that wonderful origin story was already five years ago now?

Happy birthday, Summer Sum Sum, my amazing little pal.

Choose the hard path

The message out there is that it’s harder than ever to follow your dreams. I don’t know if it’s harder than ever, but it’s hard.

Here’s what the messengers neglect to say, because it helps their cause if you’re discouraged: It has always been hard. 

It’s not easy to chase dreams. Half the time people will say dreaming is a bad thing.

“Oh, you’re dreaming.”

“Well … yes. Yes, I am.”

“Don’t be so foolish.”

The messenger is often a loved one, and that hurts so much, many people relinquish their dreams and choose a more “practical” path. The thing about the practical approach is that you’re still working hard, you’re just not working on your dreams.

So follow your dream. You know you want to. And when the going gets tough, just remember, this is your dream. Don’t stop believing.

What I Came to Say

I don’t mean to intrude, or maybe I do, because I can tell you’re unhappy with each other, and that won’t do, not in the long run, and not in the short run.

Short term, you’re angry and upset, and that’s no way to get along with one another. Long term, being hateful and mad for an extended period of time can wreak havoc on your innards. You’re literally killing yourself with all this rage.

Death is a sad fact of life, but you don’t want to rush it, and wishing death on someone is a good way to speed your own demise. All those juices you stir up hating will kill you eventually, sure as the day is long.

So what I came to say is treasure life while you have it. Try to understand people who see life differently from you — and if they hate you, don’t take it personally. They don’t understand you, either.

Life is tough and then you die — it’s the same for all of us. It’s a waste of energy to go around hating, and it’s toxic energy, too, so the main person your hate harms is your own self. Do you see how foolish anger and hate are yet?

A couple of thousand years ago, this one guy went around suggesting that the two most important things are to love God and to love your neighbor as yourself. Actually, he didn’t say it was a suggestion, he called them commandments. It’s not always easy — we don’t always understand God, and times like that it’s hard to love him — and don’t get me started on loving your neighbors. They can act in the most peculiar ways, or they can come after you and call you names or worse. But you know? The best thing to do at times like that is to love them anyway. They may not come around, but love heals. If they refuse to accept the healing, at least you will be more healthy.

Hey, look — the word “heal” is tucked inside the word “health.” It’s pronounced differently, but “health” must be what you get when you “heal.” Cool, huh?

I wrote a poem a few years back called “Love anyway.” Basically the message was to love no matter what the world throws at you. Stuff will still hurt, but if you return hurt with hurt, it just keeps hurting, back and forth. Love works better — really.

So that’s what I came to say: Love God and love your neighbor — and if I didn’t make it clear yet, that person you call an enemy (or maybe he claims you are his enemy) — that person is a neighbor, too. It’s not a perfect world, and it would not be a perfect world even if everyone loved God and loved their neighbors, but I’m pretty confident it would be a better world, and at the very least you will feel better if you do.