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Sarah as Debate Opponent
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Since Frank has returned to Minneapolis I find myself with no one to talk to except my dog, Sara.
I was feeling sorry for myself about this but I found that Sara was not only an excellent conversationalist but was a vast improvement over Frank in terms of an opponent in debate. Now you may think that since Sara cannot talk that she would be worthless as a conversationist and completely out of her field as a debate opponent. You just don’t know Sara.
I stumbled on this appreciation of Sara myself. Since I was here alone I began talking to myself and it was two or three days before I noticed that Sara was listening closely to what I was saying.
I remember sitting down and discussing at great length the qualities which John Roberts would bring to the bench of the Supreme Court and a careful study of Sara told me that she agreed with my analysis completely. She was sitting there with her ears perked up , her mouth open and lips pulled back in a smile and occasionally nodding her head as I made a salient point. She agreed!
When I recounted Senator Joe Biden’s scurrilous questioning of Judge Robert’s 1982 appraisal of some civil rights legislation she dropped to the floor in a sulky pout and put her head down between her paws. After I had continued for a few minutes it was obvious by her body language and the fact that she ran to the door and scratched on it to be let out that she considered the matter closed and that no further conversation was warranted.
I’ll admit that Sara’s score in the field of research and data retrieval is weak. She keeps no notes and her contribution to the debate is very much related to response to something I say. There is not much that Sara puts forth as independent thesis for her side of the argument. She can however exhibit scathing disdain for my theses. She some times even laughs and rolls over on the floor in glee over some inappropriate thing I say and is not beyond getting indignant and walking off if I get too far out of line.Sara is a very acute observer and that stands her in good stead in these debates. If I say something that I have no backing for it is not beyond Sara to frown (Oh, yes dogs can frown) and adopt a haughty mein for several minutes.
It is crushing to be beaten by a dog in a debate but Sara is very kind when it happens. She comes and lays her chin on my leg and looks up at me with those soulful brown eyes and lets me know that winning debates is not everything in life.
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