It/He/She

Got a dog?

Those of us who do will have a lot of stories to talk about. About that day you walked in with a face that said out loud- ‘Ruminating on the Unfairness of Life’ and how your dog came running to you and put his head on your lap and said out loud without making a sound- ‘Can I cry too?’

Whether you are a dog person or not, you will surely be able to point out the difference between these two statements.

‘My dog? He’s doing great.’

‘It’s a dog!’

Yeah. The first person says ‘he’ while the other says ‘it’.

I was just looking out the car window one day, thinking about this when I realised how great an example this is to the way we address a new idea or a new resolution.

Why do some people call a dog ‘it’ and some others call it he/she.

Every pet dog  has a name. It is the first step we take in recognising the personality inside. We put a face to it and a heart to it but most importantly we put in a part of us. When you first talk to a dog, you are partly talking to yourself. You ask the question and you put together an answer from its expressions.

Man always wants another version of himself, the very reason why we try to change everybody around us before changing ourselves. Don’t believe me?

Bring a dog home and observe the way you train it.

But somewhere along the way, we realise that you have to adjust a bit too. You realise that that dog is trying to train you too and somehow you work out a system where you  and he can coexist.

But that’s what creates a relationship.

We all try out new hobbies from time to time. But something we always forget to do is to call it Johnny(the best doggy name I could come up with).

We  forget to see it as a person.

I still remember a few months back, when I started blogging, I was so excited. But I had to try out new things, sacrifice things I had going on, to make it work. But I still do it. I was not trying to be a teenage millionaire when I started blogging and I was not looking for fame. I was trying to build a relationship.( for your clarification, I am not a millionaire. I work on a 10 year old laptop to keep it short). The point is, you enjoy what you do a lot more when you look at a hobby like you look at a friend.

It’s been a few years since the day I first took a guitar in my hands. It’s not like I’m an expert or anything. I was a rebel, I think. I never wanted to learn it the scientific way, though I could have. I did not imagine myself with the London Philharmonic. I imagined myself by my bedroom window, looking out into the rain and singing to myself. I wanted to put a part of me into the instrument. but that’s what I think kept me at it. I look back and I often think why I kept on playing. I was horrible at first. But because guitar was a ‘he’ to me, I didn’t care what others thought.

So, what is the conclusion? You have a better shot at whatever you do when you see it as a real person. You put a part of you in it and before you know it, it becomes an inseparable part of your life.

I’d like to end this post with that cliché question part of all my posts,

New hobby? Is it an it/a he/a she?