From This American Life.
Nancy Updike:
Does he bring something to your life? Is there a good part? Is there pleasure?
Ira Glass:
Yeah, of course. It's not as much pleasure as the amount of work it is. All the pleasures are really corny ones. Like it's really sweet to have this animal that trusts no one and is alone in this world except for us. And he trusts us.
And he's a nervous dog. And to get him out of his head, and he's just running after a ball, and he's bringing it back. And you throw it again, over and over, and he's super happy, like a normal dog-- it's really sweet to see. It really feels like a triumph.
And he's sweet, as a dog. I love him. And I love my wife. And it would kill her if we could've kept him alive longer and we didn't do it. And that was true so early on that any other premise was unthinkable.
That's why it's not a question. That's why you can say all this stuff. And I feel like if you picture a little scale with a balance, it's not even weighing anything on that side of it.
Nancy Updike:
Well, because it's not about the dog. The thing on the other side of the scale is Anaheed, not the dog. I think that's what's hard to understand from the outside is that it seems like, ah, it's about this dog. But it's about your relationship with your wife.
Ira Glass:
But the thing is if Anaheed were to just vanish off the face of the earth, I would still take care of the dog. Years ago, she made me promise that if she were to suddenly die, I would keep the dog alive. And at that point, it was kind of like a 50/50 choice, and I said I would as a promise to her. But now it doesn't matter that I promised her. I would just do it.
Nancy Updike:
And what changed?
Ira Glass:
It's a hard thing to spend so much energy trying to protect a helpless creature, or a helpless person, or anything that's helpless. It's a hard thing to turn that off. Once you've been protecting it, your mind is used to protecting it. And the thought that you wouldn't protect it just becomes offensive to who you are. You can't flip off that part of yourself like it's a light switch.
Nancy Updike:
It's interesting that you consider him helpless, though, since he lunges at you every day. And you see helplessness behind I think what other people see as aggression.
Ira Glass:
Now I see that. Right, but fundamentally in this world, he's 1 foot tall. He weighs 60 pounds. He can't earn any money. He doesn't speak the English language.
I'm in charge. You know what I mean? Like I could have him killed any day.