Engraved Names

Honeybun NA, NAJ.
This is our dog's official name now, according to AKC. She is a titled dog. We got the proof in the mail yesterday. We laughed at the simple, unobtrusive name, incongruously followed by titles. She doesn't act any differently. She sniffed her official notification, printed in fancy, framable letters. Big deal, so she jumps and navigates agility obstacles now beyond novice level. She isn't going to get sucked into this fame and fortune thing.
But we are.

"Mom," said Asherel, "We can get a medallion with her name and titles engraved on it."
"How much?"
"They start at $25."
"I don't think so," I said.

But while she wasn't looking, I read the fine print. The back of the medallion is left blank so the owner can engrave the dog's name and title on it...themselves....It isn't even engraved for $25!

This reminds me of the American Poetry Assoc... or some similarly named group contest that Matthias entered when he was a young boy. He wrote a lovely poem, which of course as his mom I cherished .  Lo and behold, he received an official paper with his name and poem on it, claiming he was one of their "winners" and his prize was publication in their book. We could order the book with all the "winners" poetry for just $150!  I am a rotten, cynical mother, so instead, I cut out his poem, and hung it on the refrigerator.

We are such a vain species. We so long for recognition. If we don't get it by doing good things, we seek after it by doing bad things. We hate to think we are just a nobody, a speck of dust floating by like all the other nameless specks of dust. I like to challenge myself to try to understand- "who am I when no one is looking...when no one knows what I am doing, thinking, being?"  I am not sure I can answer that question. Not fully. The closest I can get is to consider what brings me unquenchable joy. When I am in the presence of unquenchable joy, I am probably most who I am at the core. We all have different lists of what brings that overwhelming joy, but I think it is a good list to ponder.

Solomon is probably the most famous of these kinds of seekers. In the Bible book Ecclesiastes, he searches for the meaning of life, what gives him value, satisfaction, joy.  He admits it is not wealth, women, or wild living. He tried all those things, and ultimately realized they failed him. It is not fame- he was King! Still he was not convinced life was anything greater than a futile grasping of the wind.

I think this is why I like dogs so much. They are seemingly so content to be fed, loved, and eat an occasional dead squirrel or chase a ball. Their needs are so simple. They appear to find joy in simply being. How many of us can honestly say that? I know I can't.  I am not content to just be.... I want titles after my name that could be engraved on a silver medalion.

The funny thing is... I have that.

When the disciples returned from one of the missions Jesus had sent them on to proclaim His name, they are pretty full of themselves, because  "even the demons submit to us!" It is a heady thing, power. But Jesus quickly reminds them that is not what they should be rejoicing over. Instead, He tells them, their names are engraved by God Himself. Rejoice over that. My name is engraved in Heaven.

I threw away the AKC medallion offer. Honeybun still curled up at my feet that night and turned adoring eyes upon me. Her name was engraved on my heart, and that is all she cared about.

Luke 10: 17-20
 ¹⁷ The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.”
 ¹⁸ He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. ¹⁹ I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. ²⁰ However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

His Signature

AKC has recognized a new breed, or more accurately an old breed that has finally passed the test of pure untainted blood unsullied by riffraff like most of the dogs that populate the animal shelters. This breed is the  Xoloitzcuintli and is best known for putting most people's normally agile tongues into loopdeloops. The breed is rare and considered the oldest breed perhaps in the Americas, having crossed over the Bering Strait land bridge back when mothers used to make blueberry pancakes from scratch.

I take offense at this because this is exactly what is said to be true of the Carolina Dog. Our Honeybun is a Carolina Dog, despite what naysayers insist is just a "yeller mongrel."  The Carolina Dog is an ancient breed, and I am sure more ancient than the Xoloitzcuintli. It is also a cuter breed. If you don't trust me on this, go look at a picture of a Xoloitzcuintli.  The Carolina Dog, not yet accepted by AKC, is still found roaming in feral packs in the swamplands of the Carolinas (hence the clever name.) They too were considered to have crossed into America over the Bering Strait land bridge but back before the Xoloitzcuintli. We know this to be true because there have been archeological digs of remnants of the Xoloitzcuintli's ancient scribblings that indicate they wanted to cross over when the Carolina Dogs were making the trek, but the immigration officials could not pronounce their name and suspected they were terrorists.

At any rate,  now that I am privy to some of the inner workings of the AKC since I receive updates and newsletters, I was curious to see what happens when a new breed is recognized. Within nanoseconds, one can follow the new breed announcement all the way to why everyone should want a Xoloitzcuintli and right to the information on how to buy one. By following the links, I found out that there is Xoloitzcuintli Club of America, and I can get a puppy with free shipping for only $1000.

 Contrast this with how much we paid for our rare and even more ancient Carolina Dog. Nothing! We found her half dead on the roadside. And even covered with ticks and red clay and sores and skin and bones, I thought she was cuter than the Xoloitzcuintli....but beauty is of course subjective.

Which is what I had intended to write about today. Beauty. How much I reveled in the beauty of the Blue Ridge mountains on our recent trip. Meanwhile, back home, the snow has melted leaving gobs of mud where grass would be if we could manage to ever grow grass. Leaves still unraked from the fall are piled along the fence. It is rainy and grey. I miss overwhelming, glorious beauty. There is much to be said about Charlotte, but it is not an area I would call spectacularly beautiful.

But then looking at the pictures of the rare Xoloitzcuintli, it is clear that some people consider this a spectacularly beautiful dog. Those who know all the breed traits intimately rave about these hairless dogs that require weekly lotion baths to keep their skin from flaking off and making them both hairless and skinless. Beauty is clearly in the eye of the beholder. And I began to think about some of the smaller parts of Charlotte that do take my breath away....like the branches coated in ice after the recent storm against the deep Carolina blue sky. Sometimes I am looking too far out, looking for majestic mountains towering on a distant horizon, when I should just be looking up and noticing the elegant curves and meanderings of the branches of the trees.

Maybe God is telling me to find beauty where I am. The Creator who designed our gorgeous Carolina Dog designed the hairless Xoloitxcuintli too. He made those glorious mountains, but He also made the foothills with the icy branches after the storm.  Everything created by God has the marks of His hands upon it, and maybe I need to look more carefully for His signature.

Ecclesiastes 3:11

¹¹ He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.