My Life As a Dog

Not having roots in religion, I've written in the past about my beliefs, which are fairly insubstantial.  I believe there probably was a pretty cool dude named Jesus that would have been someone I would have liked to have hung out with and had some hummus and chatted with about shit, but of all the things though to have really strong feelings about, I have always believed in reincarnation.  We are all dealt different hands in life... some very lucky and some not so much.  I could never understand why life was so unfair for some, and always felt that the life that we are cognitively living currently is one of many that we have to live (or have already lived) before we can get to where we are supposed to end up.  So maybe one life you are very wealthy and one poor... one maybe good looking and one not... one you are riddled with health problems...  one as a minority... and so on.  To me, it made sense that to be a better well-rounded person and someone who was truly worthy, you would need to understand other people's plights and walk in their shoes.  When I was little, I wanted to come back as a dog, because it seems like almost everyone loves dogs and you get to lay about the house doing nothing... maybe the occasional ball lick and an ass sniff... it's all good.  All I know is my current reincarnation must be getting me ready to be a Saint, because the shit I'm dealing with in this go-round from my family better earn me some friggin' wings and a set of mugs.

A friend of mine recently turned me on to an 'unauthorized parody' called Dog Sees God:  Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead.  The play imagines characters from the popular comic strip The Peanuts as teenagers. Drug use, suicide, eating disorders, teen violence and bullying, rebellion, sexual relations and identity are among the issues covered in this drama.  When CB's (based loosely on Charlie Brown (names have been changed)) dog dies from rabies after biting a yellow bird, CB goes to his friend Van (Linus) and asks him where we go when we die.  A self-professed Buddhist, Van tells him that either your spirit dissolves or you become reincarnated.  Another friend tells him that we return to the womb, although it may not be that of your mothers.  And while the story unfolds and CB tries to make sense of it, as well as other things that are happening (like his gay love for his friend, Beethoven), the message in the end is comforting to CB in that some of his friends may be looking after each other in the afterlife.

If it sounds intriguing, you're in luck... The Martinsburg High School is performing it... Here's the production info:

When: September 6 and 7 at 7:30 pm     September 8 at 2 pm

Where: Martinsburg High School   701 S. Queen Street Martinsburg, WV 25401

Cost: Adults $9    Students $7     Festival seating with tickets sold at the door

They will be hosting speakers from the following organizations with a percentage of the profits going to that organization:

Fri--Fairness WV
Sat--National Office of the HRC
Sun-- New Light Metropolitan Church