tug o’ war

Tug o’ War by Robert C. Jackson

Thi’smorning I watched my Husky Shepherd, JC, and my Corginese, Sammy, play tug o’ war with such passion and joy.  JC outweighs Sammy by like 30 pounds, but she still lets the little doggy win most of the time.  That is what this post started to be about, and as I gathered ideas for pictures to add, I found the painting by Robert C. Jackson posted above.

Dogs and children and sometimes adults harnessing the spirt of childhood play tug o’ war and realize that winning is not the point of the game–the point is the tugging; it is the process of playing; it is the connection you have with the being(s) at the other end of the rope.  You can’t play this game by yourself in any meaningful physical sense.

So there I go, over analyzing the little game that brings so much joy to JC and Sammy (and to me when I am allowed to witness it). 

Jackson’s painting is so still.  He has turned the “war” aspect of this game on its head, focusing on the connection aspect of it.  Perhaps the game has yet to start in his painting.  Perhaps Jackson’s game is endless/timeless, and therefore the movement that occurs in the game is obsolete whereas the connection the game nurtures is all that remains. 

Is tug o’ war then “taking you nowhere” and amounting to no progress, then? Or is the progress in the connection that is made?

Is the tug o’ war that is the nature of living as a survivor of childhood abuse or abuse in general taking you nowhere or should the focus be on the connections that are made? (By tug o’ war, I suppose I mean the battles between your desire to lead a “normal life” and the reality that you have to deal with your baggage and “normalcy” has to be re-defined for you…)

There I was enjoying the joy my dogs were experiencing, and I couldn’t help turning it into an inquiry about my survivorship.  But that’s “normal”–for me.

~ by silvernightchild on July 26, 2007.