Goodbye, Little One.

I think there are a couple of good reasons that it's so hard to say goodbye to our animals. First, they are innocent. There is no moral dimension to them, rather they die as an indirect result of our bringing moral judgement into the world. They don't deserve to die, because they did nothing wrong... even if they killed another animal (which typically they did), they didn't commit murder. And the smaller the animal, the more innocent they can seem, so the harder it can be.

Secondly, it's unclear what happens to them when they die. Do they have a soul that God brings to Himself? Will He let us see them again someday? Or are they gone forever? Something that brings me comfort is the fact that God's mind has infinite potential. (I can't say whether it's actually infinite.) A passing thought in God's mind is more real than our entire universe. Therefore, if God remembers her, she will be immortal. Because He knows everything about her on every possible level -- her molecular and quantum structure, the makeup of every dimension of her personality, and the nature of her soul -- all He has to do is think of her in her entirety and she will actually exist, perhaps in an even higher state than she existed in this universe. And perhaps, due to Christ's sacrifice removing our sins from the Father's eyes, the way we love our pets is analagous to the way He loves us. He sees us as innocent and, like ourselves, He can only feel love towards those who are innocent. So, if He promises a resurrection to a flawed humanity, then it seems not at all unreasonable to think that we'll see our little friends again.

Socks passed away this past Saturday. We had an event selling beer at Freedom Farms and I was gone most of the day... when I came home, she was on her side on the couch and had passed sometime during the day. I'm not even sure if I saw her that morning, as I was in a hurry to get out the door. While I have certainly shed tears, it moreso has just sort of brought me down and made me ponder existence a lot all week. Predictably, I regret not spending more time with her and cherishing her more, especially in her old age. She didn't see people a lot since she moved out to our new house since I've been so busy. I wonder if she was lonely and lost the will to live. Or perhaps being around the dogs so much stressed her out. I'll miss her... she was one of my oldest friends.

Sunday evening after another busy day of running around doing brewery stuff that I'll soon forget, Beth and I buried her on the family farm -- something that I'll always remember.