{"id":8880,"date":"2021-10-16T02:32:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-16T02:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=8880"},"modified":"2026-10-02T01:34:38","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T01:34:38","slug":"its-just-a-dog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=8880","title":{"rendered":"“IT’S JUST A DOG!”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

That’s what some stranger yelled at me a few mornings ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

But “dog” was drawn out to make room for as much condescension as possible:\u00a0“It’s just a dawwwwwg!”<\/p>\n\n\n

I couldn’t tell where the voice came from exactly, but it must have been from an open window of a house across the street.<\/p>\n\n\n

His comment was prompted by seeing me take several selfies with Ginger as we had just finished a one mile run while the sun was rising:<\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n

I took so many because I figured if I took a couple dozen, I MIGHT end up with one where I had Ginger in frame AND I didn’t have “crazy eyes”. (However, I didn’t think to drop the bag of dog poo out of frame!)<\/p>\n\n\n

But my mystery commenter decided I was taking excessive photos of my dog and\u00a0that I <\/i><\/b>needed to know his<\/i><\/b> opinion.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

It seems my “friend” momentarily forgot that there was no screen between us.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

This little incident reinforced a theory I have that, if we let our guards down, ugly norms that have taken root online will gradually spread into the real world as well.\u00a0 Like poison ivy.<\/p>\n\n\n

I feel like our screens are feeding our fallen human impulse towards self-righteousness in a big way.\u00a0On Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Tik Tok, we are constantly invited and encouraged to mind everyone else’s business!\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

Not only do we “like” other people’s stuff, we feel justified – compelled, even – to tell others how we disapprove of their actions or opinions. Even complete strangers.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

We scroll and judge. We must let all other onlookers know: is this post worthy of a thumbs up or thumbs down from us?<\/p>\n\n\n

Self-righteousness is not healthy in any form, either spiritually or relationally.\u00a0And this particular strain of self-righteousness is becoming second nature to us and spilling over into real life.<\/p>\n\n\n

The Apostle Paul taught, “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.” (Romans 12:18)<\/p>\n\n\n

So, remembering that Jesus could hear me,\u00a0I stifled my impulses and decided to exercise self restraint in response to my unseen It’s-just-a-dawwwg commenter.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

I replied loudly, “Yes, I know.” And headed down the sidewalk.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

That’s what some stranger yelled at me a few mornings ago.\u00a0 But “dog” was drawn out to make room for as much condescension as possible:\u00a0“It’s just a dawwwwwg!” I couldn’t tell where the voice came from exactly, but it must have been from an open window of a house across the street. His comment was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8881,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8880"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8880\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8882,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8880\/revisions\/8882"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}