What is Fuse the Muse? Your creativity on display! Your muse is the image above, and your job is to fuse it with an abstract theme, impressing us all with your insight and/or humor. Today your theme is freedom. So what’s brewing in your mind?
What strikes me about this picture is how the pets are in many ways granted a superior status to their owners, yet don’t seem to notice. The time and money that these humans put into their dogs’ hygiene, hair, and social behavior was almost certainly more than they invested in their own. I see the dogs relaxed and enjoying themselves while the humans doggedly serve and pamper them. These animals are given nearly every comfort and privilege available to people, and perhaps even more. Nobody comes and grooms me everyday, that’s for sure!
Now obviously the owners freely choose to place their pets on such a pedestal, but what’s interesting is that the dogs don’t seem to care. Humans try to elevate animals to near or even above human status; animals seem content where they are. Dogs don’t aspire to be pretty or polite, it’s the humans that strive for best in show. Animals don’t attempt to transcend their habitual, instinctive existence to achieve the freedom of creativity or originality, but people do. Even when we treat animals as good or better than humans-as in this picture-they still aren’t free to truly share our unleashed ambitions.
When we are told in the Bible that God made humans-alone of all earthly creatures-in his image, one wonders what exactly it is about us and God and his image that is different from the rest of creation. Perhaps it is this freedom, this ability to choose independently of habit or instinct. Perhaps God created us in his image to freely will to truly share in his unleashed ambitions, his best in show. Perhaps instead of dragging or training us into a relationship with him, he wants humans to will where dogs won’t.
But those are just my kibbles n’ bits. Let’s hear your take! And as always, in a few days I’ll be advertising a blog, website, cause, or quote of whoever submits the most humorous or creative comment, so leave a way for me to contact you if necessary!
To further explore precisely how and why God distinguishes people from all other creatures, check out Healing Hereafter.
