Strawdogs

John Grays book is titled after a sentence by Lau Tzu:

Heaven an earth are ruthless, and treat the myriad creatures as straw dogs. 

 Near the end of his book Gray is more direct:

The good life is not found in dreams of m progress, but in coping with tragic contingencies. We have been reared on religions and philosophies that deny the experience of tragedy. Can we imagine a life that is not founded in the consolations of action? Or are we too lax and coarse even to dream of living without them?
A life without action would be a meditating life, I guess.

But meditating that includes the destructive forces in the universe. Even forces like depression or worries or hatred. The person who can have a look at it dark sides, without suppressing them, may not let the be outlived in action.

Even so, catastrophes may lead to new life.

When another planet crashed  in to the earth in the early days of the universe, the remains were, more or less, only small dust.

But by time the dust came together to form not only a new earth but also the moon. And without the stabilizing moon, probably no life on earth.

That will not happen a again, but smaller "tragedies" will happen in our lives - so another way to look at it is to be grateful as long they not are knocking on our doors. And to be thankful for the small thing like a crows voice from outside, as it is winter and not many birds can be heard. Thank you crow!

So the dawn will go into night - but time will pass and a new day will come....



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