Amy Lu's View

It’s the end of an era: Today StanLee chewed up one of his carry around sticks. 

“Carry around stick?” you might ask. “Don’t you mean chew stick?” No, as chronicled in an exciting previous installment of this blog, “Stick With It,” StanLee doesn’t chew his chew sticks. He carries them around (and buries them in various blankets) so they are “carry around” sticks. Until today, when he actually chewed one of his carry around sticks up. 

Whoa. 

StanLee and I are both still a little stunned by this change. 

StanLee has had this stick–one of a collection of three–for at least a year. Which is a pretty long time for a chew stick to not be chewed, and a significant portion of a 5 ½ year old dog’s life. 

So what was so special about today that it inspired StanLee to chew up one of his sticks? I have no idea. (It was one of his small sticks, so maybe the event wasn’t that monumentous, but this still feels like a big StanLee life passage). I just checked the list of today’s holidays and it is the beginning of National Library Week, so maybe that’s how StanLee decided to kick off the celebration? 

BREAKING NEWS…I spoke (well, blogged) too soon. I jumped to conclusions. StanLee still has half of his stick, and did NOT chew it up entirely. 

I was pondering if StanLee was following the advice we heard yesterday on a podcast to go ahead and make a change that we needed to. (Okay, Chad and I heard this advice while in the car so StanLee wasn’t with us but maybe we have a psychic connection with him so he mysteriously still got the message. Or, Chad hypothesized that StanLee listened to the podcast on his own–we have a voice activated smart speaker that might understand StanLee). But now that I know he only chewed half his stick do I need to abandon this theory?…No, a transformation doesn’t have to be complete for it still to be a change. And is change ever finished, or always in process?

Whatever the reason for StanLee’s new approach to his sticks, is he happy with it? As I don’t speak StanLee I can only guess, but I think he’s ambivalent…happy he got to chew his stick, but sad that it’s gone (or at least that half of it is). Now that he knows he can chew a carry around stick, will he chew his others? Again, we’ll have to wait and see, but he has spent the afternoon industriously trying to hide and bury the remaining half of his stick. 

Choosing what to carry, and what to let go, and what to try to preserve, and what to savor, and what to hide, and how to enjoy something–those are all big philosophical and spiritual questions for a puppy (and a human) to chew on. 

(*Alternative Title: “Carry On My Wayward Puppy”–I really like this but thought it might be too obscure)