Romeo Everlasting

March 18, 2020
Acrylic and oil on canvas  16x20". Studio collection.
“Heroes rarely look the way we draw them in our minds: attractive figures with rippling muscles and strong chins. More times than not, they are humble beings, small and flawed. It is only their spirits that are beautiful and strong.”- R. Evans
.
A tribute in progress of me and my now-gone little brother, Romeo.
Romeo was not a dog’s dog. He was, to put it ever-so-gently, a mama’s dog. I fully co-sign the strict, merciful fact of reality that all dogs are here to serve a purpose in our lives. And, Romeo was no exception, though I am sorry that for the better half of your 15 years with us I considered you a mosquito with toenails, you did not deserve that.
.
I remember traveling with you. My step dad would put on a grand show for TSA in the airport, feigning an anxiety condition (or some variant thereof, he wasn’t the best actor) so you could travel in the luxury of a purse on all the airplanes. Maybe my step dad actually does have anxiety, I don’t know, I’ve only ever seen the show at the airport.
.
Romeo wasn’t fussy the way you would expect a man of build and stature. As long as he wasn’t being forced to socialize with his contemporaries at the dog park, Romeo was
just...
Happy
To Be
Here.
.
And that’s what he taught me. What, perhaps all of this is about.
No matter how much I feel like an insignificant garbage ball of emotion, I am so damn lucky to be here.
.

And so are you.

And our dogs?
We don’t hardly deserve them. They save us. .