The Book of Job

Hi! It's Nala!!!

Alfie was under the weather yesterday, which drove him literally under the bed in Main Master and Mistress's bungalow bedroom.

Poor Alfie! He wouldn't eat. He wouldn't drink. He wouldn't bark. He wouldn't pee. He wouldn't move.

Of course, I worried about him.

"Hey, Alf??" I asked him in the morning when he failed to bound out of the screened porch of the bungalow in celebration of the gift of one more country morning. "What's going on, bro?"

But he couldn't even answer. He just stared at me with baleful eyes.

Suddenly, I had an idea.

"Wait a minute," I said, the wheels turning quickly in my mind. "Were you eavesdropping on the conversation that Main Master and Mistress had yesterday on The Book of Job with that weird pack of humans they call their 'havurah?' You know, where they were talking about whether God's answer out of the whirlwind was a satisfactory response to Job who had suffered with no apparent cause, other than being a pawn in a power struggle between God and The Adversary, sometimes mistakenly referred to as Satan in English because of the Hebrew Sa-Tan."

Alfie covered his head with his paws. I knew it! He was not sick, but in a state of existential despair.

Doggone it! With so many upbeat books to discuss -- "50 Shades of Grey" is my favorite -- I just don't get why the humans think it is a good idea to ponder the puzzle of theodicy on a sunny summer day. I mean, I like Kafka and all and can even get into Sartre when the mood strikes me, but when you start delving into the conundrum of a just God in a world with evil and suffering, that is a bit too much for a Pomeranian to bear.

Fortunately, the gloom started to lift late last night. Maybe it was because Alfie peed on Main Master's copy of Robert Alter's "The Wisdom Books," offering his own commentary on the futility of seeking meaning in a meaningless world.

Whatever the cause, Alfie is back to his playful, happy self, cavorting in the sunny lawn outside of the bungalow while Main Mistress labors away on her laptop.

For next week, I will insist that the humans have a more uplifting discussion.

xxxooo,

Nala