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9.20.2009

emotionless

"Golden Retriever dies in hot car".  This was not a TV news story.  This was not a news paper headline..  I don't think it even made the back pages of the local paper.

I heard about it in my writing class.  It was an awful thing to hear.  My mind and attention immediately left the reader and went to the dog.  I pictured it going from window to window, pawing at the glass, trying to get out.  It was going from back to front, licking the window, looking for air, panting frantically, needing water.The temperature rising baking the poor animal like a pig on a spit, but the pig is always dead,  The dog wan't dead, it was dying.  It was dying a horrible death.  It was locked in a hot car.  The temperature rising. 100 degrees, 110 degrees, 120 degrees, 130 degrees 140 degrees...When did it die?  How much did it suffer?  I was oblivious to the reader.  I had shut her out.  My mind, my heart and my soul was with the dog.  Who would do this?

The class prompt was "where are you?"  The writer was feeling sorry for herself.  Her nephew had fallen from a car and had been killed.  Someone in the family had left the Golden Retriever in the car and had forgotten it.

What kind of family was this  The writer wrote and read her words with with absolutely no emotion.  My mind was screaming "my god lady, do you know what you just wrote"?  Where are your feelings, your heart, your soul, your life.?  Are you really dead and no one has told you yet?

A boy died a tragic death.  A dog died a horrible death.  You wrote about these events the same as you would describe the time of day.  You want to write?  Are you kidding?  If you are ever going to be writer you had better develop some  feelings.  You teach music.  Do only teach dirges?  If you are going to write you had better learn to write words that are "hummable".

6 comments:

Greta said...

Your writing about her lack of feelings didn't lack for emotion! I was there with the dog. How sad.

George S Batty said...

I am very emotional when it comes to animal cruelty and to have one die a horrendous death causes me a lot of stress.

rebecca said...

I'm sick to my stomach. How horrible. If it's one thing that I can't stand is to see an animal suffer...any animal (or bug). I've been known to pick slugs from hot pavements very carefully and tenderly and put them on the grass where they can burrow themselves in again. Yes, I'm that crazy.

This was horrible and all I could think about was of my two babies (my two pups - well, they're full grown spaniels) and thinking what they would have gone through. I couldn't live with it. I couldn't stand it. And, seriously, the writer was feeling sorry for herself? WTF?

Rinkly Rimes said...

Now that's empathy! To get inside the feelings of a dying dog. You helped me to do the same.

George S Batty said...

Rebecca thanks for the visit. I appreciate your time. dropped in on you and couldn't figure out POD. I'll be back

George S Batty said...

Rinky - thank you for the comment. Ii I achieved creating feeling for a tortured animal, I am a success. To many people just pass it off. I cry a tear when I hear of cruelty like that.

About Me

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So Cal, United States
I am an apprentice writer of short stories and I also attempt a little poetry.