David McElroy

making sense of a dysfunctional culture

Three years after she sneaked in, World’s Happiest Dog® is queen

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The first time I ever heard of Lucy, it was just a message from someone wanting me to help her find a home for a dog. That was all.

I absolutely, positively had no interest in adopting her. I was away from the house too much of the time and I was also just settling into a new house with the cats. There were too many things up in the air. The last thing I needed was another responsibility.

But I didn’t have any choice in the matter. Lucy adopted me.

A week or so before she came to my house, I went over to the apartment where she was living to take a couple of pictures of her. She was terrified of people. She was terribly unsure of herself.

The people who had rescued her from a chain when she was a puppy had too many animals and they were moving to a smaller place. She was the only one who didn’t make the cut to go to the new place. She was expendable.

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Identity crisis might lead to integration of my inner selves

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I’ve been having an identity crisis.

For the last month or so — maybe longer — I’ve felt internal rumblings that left me uneasy. I turned inward and started reading a lot of psychology to help me understand what was going on.

At first, I felt confused and disoriented. I found myself questioning some key assumptions I’ve had about myself for many years. I felt very uncomfortable with the feeling that my internal narrative about who I am might be wrong.

But in the last couple of days, something has suddenly cleared up. It’s as though my mind suddenly zoomed out to a far longer view of my life.

I wasn’t just having an identity crisis for the last few weeks. I was experiencing the closure — integration might even be a better word — for something that started many years ago. This isn’t a crisis. This appears to be a point at which I’m merging parts of myself — stages of my life? — that I had never quite been able to put together.

I was 29 when I first realized I was having an identity crisis, but I still remember everything about that year.

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Envy drives hatred for wealthy, but I want to earn my riches

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Do you know why I’m not wealthy yet? I do.

It’s because I haven’t made the right decisions at some key times in my life. I’ve failed to take advantage of the right opportunities to provide enough value to other people that they would voluntarily pay me for it.

But, wait. The socialists of the world — now mainstream among Democratic Party politicians — tell us we’re not rich because the billionaires of the world are keeping all the money for themselves. Shouldn’t we make them give us some of their wealth?

Only the economically ignorant — such as socialists — could think this is true. And only the truly immoral could think the answer is to steal from some individuals to give to other individuals. To take money from a person against his will is theft, no matter how nicely you dress it up in dishonest “good intentions.”

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