SPEAK, ROLL OVER AND PLAY (YAWN)

These are times that try men's spines. I added the last part. Being a politician and professional brown nosing suck-up, I am well aware of the nature of power.

And even though on the surface I do possess a certain degree of power, the truth is that I have to tolerate being nothing more than a trained monkey in some cases. Naturally, I don't mind the speak part. That part is easy. I can do that without any real practice.

As for the rolling over and playing whatever, well as long as I sacrifice my dignity, then it works. Maybe not if I decide I'm not content with humiliation, but those occasions are rare when you have to pay bills or are dependent on somebody else for survival.

So from time to time I go through the motions of stupid dog tricks. Those are not my most favorite memories. But I do the best I can to try and make them pass as quickly as possible.

Sometimes that is easier to accomplish than others. Which is okay in many ways. I guess I try to remain philosophical about it.

I do get a chance to have all kinds of extra practice and enhancing my communicate and social skills. Perhaps not always in the way I would prefer, but we do manage at times.

About the best part is when I can turn around after some truly vicious bout of abuse and degradation and find somebody to make do the same tricks. Oh yeah, those are very special joys.

There is nothing to help remove the scars of feeling embarrassed like embarrassing somebody else. I tell myself that is an object lesson.

But I'm not sure that it always works out that way from the standpoint of some employee that I make go through the motions of doing a few stupid dog tricks. Yep, it is cruel, it is debasing, but hey, I do have to share the joy somehow.

I call it sharing the joy. And my slant on that is after the misery, I get to feel the joy of when it gets better. That rush of relief when the abuse is over is so exhilarating.

That kind of joy naturally is so good to pass on. Admittedly, at the time they may not appreciate this effort on my part to make them find a new form of happiness.

In such cases I like to remind them that part of my job is to enhance their work experience that they may become a more viable and profitable member of city hall. That is a nice pile of crock that I feed them.

Sometimes they actually buy it too. Perhaps not all the time as I wish, but then another aspect of going through the stupid dog trick scenario is when you are calling out the tricks you never bent over to void getting bitten.