Rolex the Dog

It has come to my attention — through a persistent accumulation of nudges, earnest looks, and one rather formal written petition — that people wish to hear about me. Not merely to observe me from a respectful distance, not to photograph me in repose, but to sit down, in the manner of scholars convening over a text, and discuss my philosophy at length. I considered this development for some time, which is to say I slept on it, which is how I consider everything important.

The conclusion, reached after three naps and a long walk during which no one disturbed me, was this: if the philosophy must be discussed, it is better that it be discussed with dignity than picked apart without ceremony. And so I permitted it. What follows are conversations — conducted with admirable effort on the part of the speakers, who have clearly done their research, and who cite my examples and reference my conduct with a seriousness I find not unwelcome, if occasionally overstated.

I did not host these episodes. I was not present in the studio. I became aware of the enterprise in the way one becomes aware of most things in this household — by being attentive while others assumed I was simply napping. The programme is called The Stoic Life of Rolex the Dog. If humans require formal discussion to grasp what a dog enacts daily without effort, that is not a failing of the podcast. It is simply the condition of being human. Find here the latest episodes. Listen with patience, watch if you require the evidence of expression — either way, the philosophy remains the same: endure well, observe carefully, and never mistake noise for meaning.