Transcriber: wondong wang Reviewer: Hani Eldalees
For those of you who haven’t yet read where the Red Fern Grows,
Old Yeller, or A Dog’s Purpose,
you’ll find them in the damp section of the library.
Because of all of the tears of past readers
that are permanently soaked into the pages.
Why is it that all of these stories are so lovable
and so heart wrenching?
It’s because all of these books were written about dogs.
You’ve all heard the saying, ‘A dog is a man’s best friend’, right?
There’s a reason it’s not ‘A goldfish is a man’s best friend’
or ‘A crocodile is a man’s best friend’.
So that’s what I want to talk to you about today.
This connection, this unbreakable bond between dog and man exists.
Because dogs teach human beings the purest form of love there is.
A love that relies on forgiveness and really listening to
the people who are willing to confide in you
and on seizing every moment
you have on this earth with the people you love.
Dogs are born knowing how to live like this. But for people,
it’s something we need to learn.
Let’s start with forgiveness.
It’s hard.
It’s really hard. I mean, I still have a grudge against the girl who flat tired me
and ruined my Target moccasins in first grade.
But I think dogs realize that life is too short to hold grudges against people.
I mean, if you’re spending all of your time
dwelling on how mad you are at someone
from a mistake they made in the past.
Then, you really aren’t living in the moment
and you aren’t using that time and energy
to love and to appreciate what you have in the now.
Let me give you an example.
My dog, Bailey, hates going to a groomer.
Uh, he shakes when we’re in the car and he, he cries like
we betrayed him when we take him inside.
But, when we come in to pick him up,
he is the happiest little creature you have ever seen.
He gallops toward me with his tail wagging.
I mean, you can’t even really classify it as a wag anymore.
It’s more of a flailing motion.
And then, he jumps up like he wants me to carry him,
forgetting that he is a sixty-five pound Golden Retriever.
Now, if Bailey were a human,
he would be very mad at me for taking him to a place he hates so much.
But, because he’s a dog, he forgives me the second he sees me,
which really makes me think.
Why do we as human beings have to think we’re going to lose someone
before we really appreciate them,
before we forgive them for the trivial hardships
they may have caused us and truly realize how much they mean to us?
Let me tell you a story.
My dog’s best friend is a golden Doodle named Teddy.
His parents’ are my parents’ age and their son is my age.
At Christmas,
Teddy’s dad was diagnosed with a brain tumor.
And he was told that he has a twenty percent
chance of living to the end of this year.
They say dogs can smell certain types of cancer.
I don’t know if that’s the case with Teddy,
but if it is,
if Teddy were to figure it out,
he wouldn’t treat his dad any differently.
Because there’s no level of love and devotion
higher than the love Teddy shows his dad every single day.
As humans, we have a tendency to withhold love and affection
when we’re mad or annoyed.
But dogs never do that.
Teddy seizes every minute he has with his dad.
The same way my dog seizes every minute he has with me.
And the same way your dogs seize every minute they have with you.
Seizing the day!
‘Carpe Diem!’ Carpe diem, right.
Carpe diem is a Latin phrase that has become this huge umbrella
that so many situations fall under.
It’s the topic of an English lesson in “Dead Poets Society”.
It’s the motivation for the everyday man to get up in the morning
and make a great business accomplishment.
But to me, Carpe Diem is about treating each moment
as if it were your last by loving those around you
and never forgetting to show them, not necessarily tell them,
but show them.
I mean, dogs can’t speak,
but they’re better communicators than we are, most of the time.
I know my dog loves me because of the way he looks at me,
the way he puts his arm around my arm,
the way he's always there to listen when I need someone to confide in.
This seems silly to say out loud,
but my dog is living his life the way I want to live mine.
He’s loving the way I want to love.
Now, I know not all of you have dogs.
In fact, globally, only 33 percent of people do.
But you don't have to own a dog to learn from them.
You can read these beautiful books that people have written about them.
You can talk to that one crazy friend who is completely obsessed with their dog
because I know we all have them.
So I'm going to leave you with this little statistic.
The average lifespan of a dog is
ten to fourteen years.
I am fourteen years old.
And I’m just now realizing what dogs are born knowing.
You don’t need a fancy house, or to be the owner of a super successful company
to be happy in life.
You just need to know
how to forgive and to listen
and to enjoy every minute you have on this earth
with the people you love unconditionally
just like dogs.
Thank you.