Me. You. a Diary by Dawn French

Author:Dawn French
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781405931175
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2017-09-02T00:00:00+00:00

THANK YOU for dogs (and a little bit also for cats). Honestly, how delightful are they? Forget all the soppy fluffy girlie stuff. No anthropomorphizing. They have their own personalities and that’s that. Dog personalities, not like ours. They have taught us to pander to their needs, not the other way round. I have spent endless hours of my life trying to get a dog to laugh. They do, sort of, but each of my dogs has found different stuff funny. Oh the joy when you discover the particular thing, and then you repeat it daily for fifteen years. The pleasure. The devotion. The comfort. (Don’t bother trying to make a cat laugh, by the way. They don’t stoop so low – they find comedy vulgar.)

I wish dogs lived longer. A small part of me has died with each one, and I reckon I only have enough of me left for one more dog … and one small cat.

THANK YOU to Philip Larkin for two things in particular. The first is his poem ‘Born Yesterday’, which he wrote for his new goddaughter. I am fortunate enough to have sixteen godchildren, and this poem truly says EVERYTHING they need to know about how it’s OK to … be. I have quoted it on many occasions and it somehow gets truer.

Born Yesterday

Tightly-folded bud,

I have wished you something

None of the others would:

Not the usual stuff

About being beautiful,

Or running off a spring

Of innocence and love –

They will all wish you that,

And should it prove possible,

Well, you’re a lucky girl.

But if it shouldn’t, then

May you be ordinary;

Have, like other women,

An average of talents:

Not ugly, not good-looking,

Nothing uncustomary

To pull you off your balance,

That, unworkable itself,

Stops all the rest from working.

In fact, may you be dull –

If that is what a skilled,

Vigilant, flexible,

Unemphasised, enthralled

Catching of happiness is called.

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