Who are the real Superheroes?
Dog Chronicles #2
If you landed on Tarantula: Authors and Art for the very first time, the Dog Chronicle is a new editorial piece that looks at the world through the POV of a puppy and hints to the readers the theme of the month. What kind of a puppy are we talking about? A very curious chocolate toy or miniature poodle; he still isn’t sure of his real size. If a friend forwarded you this article about our hero, welcome; if you like it, share it or think of subscribing.
Every superhero has his own quest, even if the hero is a 5 month old chocolate toy poodle puppy. With a name such as Wolfie, we made sure to provide him with a resilient future, in which he will always be ready to fight his enemies, as well as to create a pack with his allies. The world of a puppy after all, once they leave their ordinary world behind, their mother and kennel, is full of trials and tribulations. There are daily quests of sniffing, and digging, barking and meeting the gang of dogs that hangs around the street.
However, even the biggest heroes have their moments when they feel low. Just two months into living in his new home, the great Wolfie has already fallen ill. It’s the invisible enemies, the bacteria, viruses, pathogens, that made him succumb. For a second, his personality changed and for a week, he became mad - barking at everyone, lashing out at their feet; a misanthrope especially picking on humans his own size. It was with the toddlers that he was showing his power/lessness the most.
For a while, my job became one of a peacemaker. I would pick him up, something that would always make him surrender, and I would bring him face to face with the small child that he scared to try to immediately release the caused trauma. With a friendly smile, I would explain to the kids that the dog is just a little brat that is learning everyday how to behave and be civil and to love others despite his own differences with them.
The veterinarian even suggested that the puppy has now grown into his personality and that he is displaying traits of a dog with behavioural issues. Great, I thought, now I have to take care of another angry male specimen of the world. I suppose by naming him Wolfie, we unleashed the beast out of his small body.
However, once the puppy’s ear infection was over, so was the madness! He was in pain; pain can turn the best of us into unpleasant creatures. We, humans, tend to ignore pain for a long time as the show must go on. Instead, we judge and diagnose those who are suffering around us, stuff them with pills to numb them so that they can continue running in the hamster wheel of life.
Where would the world be now if we made a priority to stop and immediately deal with pain as well as open spaces for nurturing and healing? Most likely not in the hands of a mad dictator.
Somewhere during the 10 days of the puppy being sick, waking up at many different points of the night, taking him out to the street, petting him, and crying at the sight of his helpless body, it dawned on me that I got “off track” again. For years after I became a mom, I would panic as having a new baby completely halted life as it was. I felt like a fish without water helplessly trying to swim back into the flow of the stream that didn’t seem to have a place for me anymore. However, as my intuition woke me up night after night just at the slightest movement of the puppy, I realized how strong I felt mentally.
I felt like a real life Superheroine!
The silent resilient strength that women show everyday is not as praised or spoken about as the pursuits of the opposite gender. Think of all the women now in Ukraine who are leaving their dreams and goals to fight next to the men, while other women bravely step into foreign lands in order to take care of their children and family. Think of the women in all the other conflicts in the world, the workplaces, at home!
In The Unwomanly Face of War: An Oral History of Women in WWII, Svetlana Aleksijevich interviews women soldiers that were fighting with the Soviet soldiers against fascism. Once the war ended, most of them felt disregarded; the men, their combat comrades, started looking down upon them. They were shunned and ridiculed. Their stories were not heard for decades before Svetlana, the Nobel Prize winner in Literature, crossed the map of the old Soviet Union back and forth to get their stories. Why weren’t they invited to write chapters of history?
Estimated 50 000 women, mostly over 40 years of age, meaning at their strongest, died in witch hunts in the 16th and 17th Century. Women’s voices went missing because of the opposite gender’s hysteria, and the word “witch” was associated with the devil. Sadly, even today there are witch hunts everywhere in the world and a bad reputation precedes us if we are not careful.
In her newest book, Cassandra Speaks: When Women Are the Storytellers, the human Story Changes that the puppy left an imprint of his teeth on, Elizabeth Lesser questions what would the world be like if the story of Adam and Eve, Pandora or Cassandra would have been retold by women. Even though we outgrew many of these stories, society still clings to them. It is time to open up our collective memory and make space for women’s voices. It is time to recognize that women over 40 are not “stories of yesterday,” but they are strong, they are capable and wise Superheroines!
I am sure if you asked the puppy what he thought, he would bark out an answer:
Build these superwomen monuments! I am tired of peeing in the park only at the feet of old metal men.
A simpler story of The Heroine’s Journey: Through the POV of the Puppy
Day 1. QUEST: Today, I am going to dig a hole next to the tree on the street. REALITY: I don’t feel well. The food they gave me is rubbish! I am going on a food strike. Why don’t they give me something better to eat. Humans, leave me alone, I just want to huddle against the wall. She woke up to sooth me back to sleep.Day 2. QUEST: Today, I am going to play without a leash. REALITY: I am hungry, give me anything. Not that again. Her face seems concerned. A treat, yes, I love a good treat. (Vomits) I still love a treat. (More Vomit) Let me just sleep a day or two. She puts me in her lap while she works. I hear the beat of her heart. Day 3. QUEST: Today, I am going to eat a all the junk left on the street. REALITY: She didn’t sleep last night. Everyone else who usually doesn’t sleep in the house at night, somehow started sleeping soundly. They don’t hear my cries, they don’t hear me barking. Her hand feels soft when she scratches me under my chin. I cuddle in her lap as she looks at me with big puppy eyes. They all go out to buy me new food. Who are they? Am I part of a pack? Too tired to wag my tail. She covers me with a blanket.Day 4. QUEST: Today I am going to do as many downward dogs as I can outside in the sun; wait, are they called sun salutations? REALITY: The food is settling in. However, I still have to wake up during the night. Maybe I just miss her, so I bark. She gives me more food. I am happy. It makes me ill again. Oh no, here we go, we are back to Day 1. She cries, but then gathers her strength, her posture and rations my portions carefully, so I wouldn't get sick again. Who is she? She is my Superheroine.Tomorrow, is March 8th, Women’s Day. Ladies, if nobody buys you flowers this Tuesday (or in general), go out there and buy yourselves some beautiful flowers to make your day! You deserve it! Make a trip to the flower shop a weekly adventure! Believe me, they will brighten your life! Send us pictures of your flowers in the comments, or tag us on Instagram #tarantula:authorsandart! Share your stories with us or let us know of women who are forgotten, Superheroines that need to be remembered. Happy Women’s Day!
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I'm glad Wolfie is better. And you're so right about animals and people in pain, and how we ought to treat them. Wolfie knows and loves you for the superheroine you are. <3