I’ve been thinking about sacrilege lately, about the repercussions of bucking religious tradition. It’s a bit of a puzzlement because the religion I grew up with, Judaism, doesn’t offer a clearly defined vision of the sinners’ afterlife. The fact that I had to google the term for the Jewish hell, Gehenna, to get a definition — and correct spelling — shows how vague a concept it is.
Wikipedia says, “According to Jewish teachings, hell is not entirely physical; rather, it can be compared to a very intense feeling of shame.” That sounds about right: Part existential torment created by other people, a la Sartre (as in “you’re killing your mother by [fill in the activity]“); part Woody Allen cliche, a world where we worry about who, including our dogs, we’re boring.
I bring up Judaism and its discontents because tonight is the start of the Jewish new year, Rosh Hashanah — year 5770 according to a lunar calendar as arcane as Gehenna. It’s also the occasion of the first book signing and talk for Am I Boring My Dog, a two-part event at Loews Ventana Canyon Resort. So it’s occurred to me that, if there was a hell, I would likely be consigned to it by those who believe in the strict observance of religious rituals.
How many minnies do you need for a minyan? Picture from PopJudaica.com
No question: The Old Testament deity is a stickler for details — no mixing milk and meat, for example, or even certain fabrics — and much given to “thou shalt not” dictates. And an entire other book, the Talmud, was devoted to discussing what the first book meant. I come from a long tradition of parsers and hair splitters.
So I hesitated about scheduling my big event on that date, not because I’m observant (or even a believer) but because I didn’t want to seem disrespectful to those who are. But then I realized that I no longer have any patience for sticklerism. One religion’s deity says no fish on Friday, another’s dictates no work on Saturday, a third’s abjures equality for women (oh wait, that’s all of them). Would an all-powerful spirit really sweat the details?
My much blogged about best friend, Clare, is flying in for the book signing. Most of the other friends I wrote about in my book, several of them Jewish, will be there. Dogs, including Frankie, are welcome. 10% of the proceeds from book sales and from a raffle will go to the Humane Society of Southern Arizona.
Good deeds, good friends, and good dogs (all dogs are good; some are just misunderstood). I can’t think of a better way, one more respectful of true values, to usher in a new year.
Speaking of my blog’s evolution, today I optimistically added a 
Celebrating Dog-tober: A New Contest!
I’ve been in the doldrums lately — post partum after my book birth? too many publications I used to write for hitting the chopping block? — and have decided I know the cure: Contest! This one will be a bit less cerebral than my earlier What Books Would Bore Your Dog competition but just as much fun. And the prize(s) will be the same, a copy of Am I Boring My Dog.
The timing is perfect. There are five interconnected events to celebrate in October.
– The sixth-month anniversary of my blog (started April 12).
– Adopt a Shelter Dog month
– The five year anniversary of adopting Frankie
– My birthday
– Halloween
Therefore I’m going back to the blog’s original mandate, that I would provide a place where people would feel no shame about dressing their dogs — provided, of course, that the clothing was comfortable and the pup willing. Indeed, this blog’s name, Will My Dog Hate Me, is short for Will My Dog Hate Me If I Dress Him (which was an alternative title to Am I Boring My Dog).
So to celebrate sharing my life with my own fashion forward rescue pup, I will award a copy of my book in five categories, based on a selection of the costumes that Frankie wore in the book trailer:
Western chic
Western wear Frankie
Biker chic
Bad to the bone Frankie
Continental/Euro chic
Ooh la, la Frankie!
Cross species or bad visual pun chic
Bad pun Frankie (Bunny, Easter Island -- get it?)
Space chic (for some reason, I don’t have a still for this particular outfit, so I will be forced to post the entire book trailer video, heh, heh. Look towards the end, with Frankie wearing the tin foil Martian antennae)
The only rules: The dog must have been a rescue, and the costume must look like it’s not tormenting the dog. A good back story is an asset: Send any info you like about your dog’s name, age, story… I will give extra points for home made costumes, in keeping with the spirit of several of Frankie’s best looks. Continental Frankie’s beret, for example, was created by a pair of underpants belonging to one of the videographers secured in the back with a safety pin. (Hmmm. Should I be giving away trade secrets….?)
Oh yeah and no pugs dressed as spiders in the cross-species category. I’ve seen far too many of those, and though I adore pugs — and don’t mind spiders — it’s a cliche by now.
I learned something from my last contest: There’s no predicting how many entries there will be. So I’ll just say that I’m planning to post the entries throughout the rest of this month and that the contest will end on Halloween.
I’m also not sure about all the technical aspects of this but I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.
Send jpegs to me at writestf at mac dot com with the subject line: Dog-tober Contest.
Have fun!
Update: I’ve just been reminded that it’s Bo Obama’s birthday, another Dog-tober event to celebrate — and very apropos to this contest, since my first post was about Bo’s fashion sense. Many happy rrrrr–eturns!