Mirror

Location: Oakwood Avenue near Ridgewood Avenue, Kitchener

Description: A wooden fence surrounding the front yard of a house. In the middle of the picture is a tree with a grey squirrel at the base.

Story: The announcer turned to the audience. "Does anyone have any questions for our guest? Ah, you in the green shirt."

The woman rose and took a microphone from one of the ushers in the aisles. "Thank you. I enjoyed your talk Mr. Dunham, but I'm struggling to apply it to my own life. I was wondering if you had any tips for meditating and getting used to doing it." She returned to her seat.

Mr. Dunham took a deep breath and slowly released it before moving to centre stage. "Meditation isn't a hard thing to do, nor should it be. Today I outlined the latter part of your journey, where you sit zazen for long periods, searching for enlightenment. But you don't need to start there, and indeed there are easier methods."

He smiled broadly. "How many of you have animals?" More than half the people raised their hands. He nodded and started to pantomime walking a dog across the stage. "Well, when you walk with Spot, you can think about your day and sort through what you need to do tomorrow. Any activity that doesn't require a lot of thought can be used this way, allowing you to reflect on your life and any changes you should make." He released the leash and watched the dog run off. "Of course, animals give us much more than time to ourselves; they give us a mirror."

He quickly knelt down and scratched the imaginary dog's ears. "You found a stick for me, did you? I bet you want to play fetch, don't you?" He picked up the stick, stood up, and threw it out into the audience. "When we look at animals, we can't help but fill in the blanks of their behaviour with human traits and ideas. We anthropomorphize them, and in making them human, give them some of our characteristics."

He looked downward and laughed at the dog. "Come on now, drop the stick. Oh, you want me to chase you? Think I'm too old to catch you?" He feinted going right then ran left, chasing after the hound and then tripped himself. "Great, now I've gotted my suit all wet." His eyes went wide as he turned his head to the audience. "Oh no you don't! I've had enough of a bath already! Don't you dare come in here!" He shielded his face and turned his head, pretending to have been splashed by the dog. Slowly he got up, shook off, and turned back to the audience, most of whom we snickering softly.

"So when the dog wouldn't give me the stick, I took it as a challenge. Why? Do I really feel like I'm old and can't do the things I used to? Or when I got wet, I said I had enough of a bath today. Do I feel like I don't bathe enough? Have people commented that I need to shower more? By examining how we interact with the animals in our life, we can learn a lot about how we interact with humans. We're projecting so much of ourselves onto these creatures that we can easily see who we are, and that's the start of meditation."