Thursday, July 31, 2008

Joie de Vivre

From Wikipedia:

Joie de vivre (from the French joie, "joy"; de, "of"; vivre, "to live, living"; "the joy of living") is a term sometimes imported into English to express a cheerful enjoyment of life; an exultation of spirit. Joie de vivre, as one scholar has written, can be a joy of conversation, joy of eating, joy of anything one might do… And joie de vivre may be seen as a joy of everything, a comprehensive joy, a philosophy of life, a Weltanschauung. Robert's Dictionnaire says joie is sentiment exaltant ressenti par toute la conscience, that is, involves one's whole being."

See also: Happiness, Carpe diem

All puppies have joie de vivre. They express such joy to be alive. Adult dogs tend to become more responsible as it were. They are still happy, but not with that bubbly effervescence that says "I'm so glad just to be here and be alive!" Or they have joie de vivre in some situations, like running in the park, but not all.

Some few lucky dogs retain that inexpressible lightness of spirit through their lives and pass it along to their owners. Zipper is one of those dogs, a dog whose tail is always vibrating, who is always happy, and who makes me laugh every day.

Does your dog have it?

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