Collie at a conference

Moss expanding her horizons

One of the things I most love about humanity is that we are all so very different from each other.  Last week a dear friend of mine turned ninety.  To mark the occasion he chose to have a party, which I understand, and a conference, which I don’t!

Prof. Paul Thompson is an eminent sociologist; he’s written many books and collaborated on still more.  An invitation to a conference is not something that happens to me often, if at all; so I thought to myself, damn it, I’ll go.

The location for the conference is on one of my regular walks, so I dropped in shortly before it started and asked,

“Would a very well-behaved dog be welcome?” 

Yes, she was.

I nipped home, grabbed a pencil and some paper, and looked at the titles of the papers to be delivered.  Remember, it’s sociology.  “A multi-sensory approach to filmed oral history practice.” “A social history of adoption in modern Japan” and more …

I wondered what Moss would make of it all.

A few minutes later we took our place at the back of the hall, near a door, just in case.  A lady walked in with a huge garland of gold and white balloons; Moss nearly lost it, but not quite.

She sat quietly, and perfectly behaved, under my chair, whilst I was left fairly baffled by the proceedings.

On reflection, I wonder why I’d chosen to take Moss to a conference?  I think the reason could be this; I find it hard to broaden the horizons of the Teenager, but Moss is less resistant.

AJK