A Passion for Mastiffs

A big piece of the boldness equation is going full-tilt after what draws you, what you care about.

Saturday night my dear old friend Susie came to dinner; we had not seen each other in 41 years. Until our mid-teens, we lived one door away from each other, and had played together from my earliest memory. Then she moved.

The Internet (with the assistance of my brother Harry) reconnected us. She lives only three hours away, and she was traveling with four Tibetan mastiffs.

Turns out that she, Susie Ochsenbein, has a passion for these huge beautiful dogs and has traveled over much of the world showing, judging, visiting, and studying them. She’s a global expert on these animals. And has 13 of her own. That’s pretty close to an actual ton of live dog.

The one I got to meet was a sweet-tempered, quiet girl with a gorgeous fluffy coat, as they all seem to have. She’s only a year old and about the size of a very large bulldog.

What strikes me even more than the wonder of these handsome dogs is Susie’s devotion to them, her knowledge and her passion. I love to see anyone seize life that way; and that’s what I think is happening when we follow our true and abiding interests.

It’s especially nice when it’s my old pal.

From a Joseph Campbell interview with Bill Moyers: “…If you do follow your bliss you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in your field of bliss, and they open doors to you. I say, follow your bliss and don’t be afraid, and doors will open where you didn’t know they were going to be.”

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Categories: bliss, courage, passion