Maria and I had one of our episodic philosophical disagreements this morning, I woke up thinking about the Rainbow Bridge idea, our meeting our loved animals in heaven and spending all eternity romping with them. I don’t like the idea, I don’t want to meet a bunch of crazy border collies and hungry Labs in heaven and spend all eternity romping with them, it seems uncomfortable for me and selfish as well. I hope they go and live their own happy lives, as they deserve.
I believe ideas live, evolve and change, I am not one of those people who think it is somehow hypocritical to change our minds. I change my mind about a hundred times a day. Every smart person I have ever known is eager to change their minds, not reluctant. I don’t want to live in a “left” or “right” world. But Red has shaken me up on this, I wouldn’t mind meeting him in the afterlife and continuing our journey together. Since I am much older than Maria, I expect to die first and I said I wouldn’t mind if it she collected Red’s ashes – I want to be cremated – and scattered them with mine. There is also the idea, I said, of putting Red in a coffin with me like the Pharoah’s did so we could travel to the Underworld together and I would have my dog with me.
Maria, lying in bed reading a novel, jeered at this. “You are not a Pharoah,” she said, “not even close,” and, she huffed, “I am not killing Red when you did and putting him in a coffin with you, forget about it.” She suggested this was a selfish idea, and although stung, I could see her point. Still, I said, I think Red (he was lying in bed at this point, his head on my shoulder) might want to come. Besides, I said, I sort of like the Pharoah analogy, it could work for me.
In any case, I see it’s an idea that is not going to fly. Maria is not impressed much by men in general or by me in particular. I like what our friend Mary Kellogg said when I told her Maria and I had become a thing: “oh good, dear,” she said sweetly, “she will keep you in your place.”
How true. And my place will not be in a gold coffin with toys and trinkets and dogs when I did. I’ll probably get tossed into the Dahlia garden if I’m lucky, maybe out in the pasture with the donkeys. The big news for me is that as much as I have loved my other dogs, I didn’t want them to join me in the afterlife, if there is one. Until now. I do want Red to come. I think I would like Red to come along, I think he would want do. I’m not sure about this Rainbow Bridge thing, maybe we could arrange to meet somewhere else, like our path on the woods, or maybe the Pig Barn at Bedlam Farm.