I watched a man walk a dog. We cannot assume it is his dog, or that it even belongs to anyone in his personal orbits. He could be a professional dog walker. He could have stolen the dog and walks around with it as a way of fitting in. He could be lost. The dog could be walking him.
At a glance we have no answers to the bottomless questions raised by the simple site of a man walking a dog. We can only assess his actions and congratulate or excoriate him based on his performance.
He held the leash in his right hand whilst reading something on his phone, held in the left hand. His attentions were not given to the dog. In this everyday context one assumes the dog is enjoying these moments of constrained release, freedom from the tyranny of indoor imprisonment with the compromise of a leash. How many analogies to human life could this dichotomy feed?
But let us not grade the dog. We are here to grade the performance of the man walking the dog.
He saunters along, seeming to force the dog to conform to his gait. I sensed the dog wanted more acceleration, and presumably any beast on a leash wants more freedom. More analogies spin to life. In certain contexts I enjoy the leash of conformance. In others not so much.
All in all his performance was satisfactory, save for one huge nore. He walked into Platt Street then crossed William Street far from any officially designated crosswalk. Streets are designed the way they are for good reasons. There were no cars coming at this moment but what, in the future, prevents vehicles or stampedes of horse-drawn chariots or a lightning-fast commuter train from inserting itself into this space. The atoms and particles of life are all there, waiting to assemble, and the piece of road at that intersection of William and Platt is perfectly fair and legal for those sponaneously-forming forces to occupy.
That man took a huge risk crossing the street the way he did. On this account his A+ performance is downgraded to a C. I should have cards printed up, that I could fill out and hand to individuals like this.
YOUR PERFORMANCE IN ______________ HAS BEEN REVIEWED BY THE BEHAVIOR POLICE. YOU RECEIVED A GRADE OF:
A B C D F + –
COMMENTS: ______________
The “comments” in this case would advise that the man not cross through streetscapes unless they are designated for pedestrian use. The bit about horse-drawn chariots might get a sentence or two on the back of the card, on which is printed a phone number and maybe a website URL. I would sign with my initials and no more, then hand the card to this individual before running.
