What I learned from dog vomit

As a dog returns to its vomit…..

….so a fool repeats his folly.

I saw this verse on Twitter recently (Prov 26:11 for those who are playing along at home).

At first, I laughed. Because, well, vomit is kinda funny. Unless it’s on your frisee rug. Or under the dinner table. Both places where we’ve experienced the special awesomeness of dog vomit in the last month, by the way.

Then comes the image of the dog actually coming back to it. We’ve all seen that. The idea that a dog’s mouth is the cleanest place? Not buying that. I’ve seen what my dog puts in his mouth.

And there’s the inevitability of it. The dog just plain can’t help himself. He *can’t* stay away from that tempting pile of goodness. And that, my friends, is the point. We know it’s not goodness. It’s puke. Maybe it used to be yummy super-premium dog food. But not anymore.

Now, it’s nasty. It’s the stuff that makes other people need to puke when they see it. Or smell it. But the dog comes back to it anyway. And tries to eat it.

And that’s what Solomon is trying to tell us about us, too. AS a dog returns…SO a fool repeats his folly. Let me repeat that last bit. So a fool repeats his folly.

Now, I don’t think i’m a fool. So this must not apply to me, right? But you know what? Merriam-Webster defines folly as “lack of good sense or normal prudence and foresight.” I’ve displayed plenty of that.

I keep doing things that aren’t good for me (or anyone else for that matter). I do the same things over and over, expecting different results. I cling to approaches and situations that would be best cleaned up, tossed in the garbage and hauled away.

I have vomit in my life. Less than i had 20 years ago, sure. But it’s there. And it’s time for me to clean it up.

What is your vomit?