Gone To The Dogs

It's late and I'm tired, but here goes.  I'll make this one short and sweet.  This afternoon I was walking along Tenth near Cambie, one of Vancouver's major bike routes.  Four young men decided to ride their bikes on the sidewalk since that block of the street was closed for road repair.  Fair enough.  I want to age gracefully so I'm not one for confronting strangers, regardless their age, on infractions, real or imagined. 

Then, a rather imposing looking senior male, appeared on his front porch and announced to me how those rude young people should know better than ride their bicycles on the goddamn sidewalk, which in Vancouver is illegal.  I replied that they were redirected because of road work and he snorted that they could have taken the next street instead and then he began to rant about how horrible young people are nowadays and that our city has gone to the dogs.  I simply agreed with him to shut him up and continued on my way, given that I was running late on my next work assignment.

The world is not coming to an end, not any time soon.  There have always been and always will be rude morons among our youth.  There have also always been and always will be saints and simply wonderful young men and women as well.

Yes the city has gone to the dogs.  Almost everyone wants to have one and gets a dog no matter how inappropriate the neighbourhood or their tiny apartments or condos.  And they let them run off leash and destroy parks where they're not allowed and a few of them are unpleasant, will threaten other dogs and sometimes passing humans as well.

But people need affection and love and not many are about to get it from other humans.  Yes, owning a dog is not an entitlement but a privilege but most dog owners seem to think of it as an entitlement.  I used to get mad and annoyed about this, much as I did about people riding their bikes on the sidewalk.  This kind of outrage really uses up an awful lot of energy.

It really is much better, and much easier to be kind.  Now I prefer to smile and say hi to cyclists on the sidewalk while getting the heck out of their way and stopping to pat friendly dogs while chatting with their silly humans.

I like to think of this as aging gracefully.