DOWN HOME: Have the sidewalks gone to the dogs?

Posted: 6/22/07

DOWN HOME:
Have the sidewalks gone to the dogs?

Joanna and I got run off the sidewalk the other evening.

Not by thoughtless children on bicycles. And not by reckless teenagers on skateboards.

Worse: By their parents. Or, to be more specific, by their parents walking their dogs.

Jo and I love our “new” neighborhood. We moved here last fall. And one of the best things about living here is running in the morning and walking in the evening.

The tall, mature trees (well, for this part of Texas, they’re tall) provide a beautiful canopy, as well as a haven for songbirds. And the streets curve amid gently rolling terrain, which in the light of dawn and dusk is soothing and lovely.

So, I enjoy running to the sounds of chirping birds in the morning, and Jo and I get a kick out of walking and listening to the tree frogs in the evening.

About the only thing that’s ever annoying about our evening treks is the dog-walking.

To be fair, most dog-walkers in our neighborhood are friendly and courteous. When they see someone coming, they guide their canines onto the grass to let other homo sapiens pass by on the sidewalk. But quite regularly, we encounter at least one person or couple who apparently think their dogs own the sidewalk, and everyone else should just get out of the way.

OK, I know I sound like a curmudgeon. Stepping off the sidewalk and passing on the grass doesn’t give us shin splints. We’re no worse for the wear.

But it’s the principle of the thing: Human beings are more important than dogs. People should have the right-of-way. Everybody should know that. And everybody should care.

“People can be so rude,” Jo said the other evening, when we got out of earshot. “Rude” is the operative word.

And rudeness doesn’t just manifest itself on suburban sidewalks. Brett Younger, who writes a monthly cybercolumn on our website (baptiststandard.com), recently described his son’s high school graduation. The kids were well-behaved. But the grownups were awful. Even after administrators pleaded for decency and decorum, they acted like seventh graders in an unattended cafeteria the last day before Christmas break. Whooping. Hollering. Blasting noisemakers.

Maybe I’m making too much of all this. But it seems the little ways we show disrespect for others build up. Soon, everything is about “me,” and I don’t have to care how it impacts “you.”

Sadly, Christians—who profess we believe God made all people in God’s own image—often sprawl in the big middle of rudeness. And when we disrespect others, we disrespect the God who made them.

So, be nice.

And make your dog walk on the grass.

—Marv Knox