Straw dog . . . and Clifford

straw dog: In business, something (an idea, or plan, usually) set up to be knocked down. It's the dangerous philosophy of presenting one mediocre idea, so that the listener will make the choice of the better idea which follows.

straw dog: Something that is made only to be destroyed.

So. . . i feel like we have this idea that death is some kind of abomination - something unnatural. . . a wrong done to us that shouldn't happen and maybe something about the fatlism . . . like we were CREATED to be destroyed. That is the whole point? It makes me sad. It reminds me of a really disturbing part of a Clifford book in which Clifford the Big Red Dog gets a little tiny pet robot dog that he smashes by accident. There is something scary about this big, well-meaning animal that can just squish stuff without meaning to. He's about *this close* to destroying things without really even knowing it. Which reminds me of America. And marching bands. Which is different than the straw-dog concept I guess in that the danger of this big puppy is that not intentional, but the straw-dog idea is more ominous in being intentional. But I really like the idea of a huge dog, even if he may or may not smash you by accident.

He looks so harmless here, doesn't he?

My conclusion: I need to paint literal straw dogs. :) What would that even look like? Or maybe I need to paint enormous, oversized, possibly dangerous dogs.

Maybe what I think is dangerous is that it is dangerous to love something. Because it could, indeed, be smashed.

Also. . . on another tangentially-related note: Looking through Clifford stuff makes me remember that the death of a pet is often the first experience with death that children have, and that many many books deal with the death of a pet. So as I continue to explore death (Old Yeller? Where the Red Fern Grows? Saddest stories ever. . . .) perhaps I need to keep thinking about how dogs related to that. Not that I want them to, because I like them much better alive.