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Our dog, “Remy” considers it his duty to defend the yard. Since he weighs 125 pounds it isn’t as if he’s going to get many challengers. There are, however, two creatures that torment him. His number one nemesis is a neighborhood cat. The cat knows Remy’s limitations. Remy is not a jumper. Consequently, the cat sits on top of the fence or just outside it, nonchalantly grooming itself while Remy goes crazy just feet away, barking frantically. After annoying Remy long enough the cat slowly saunters away, secure in the knowledge that Remy won’t jump and, if Remy came through the fence, he knows he’s plenty fast enough to get away. If Remy could understand we could explain to him that the cat is tormenting him on purpose and he could stop it if he just ignored the taunting.

The cat has a lot of similarity to political advertising and reporting. We’re taunted with outlandish claims and outright lies so we get agitated and rush to defend our biases while they saunter away, victors again.

The second critter that torments Remy is an adversary of Remy’s own choosing. We get lots of doves that land in the old apple tree or on the fence. It’s laughable watching Remy attempt to silently creep up on them even though he can’t possibly get to them. They wait until Remy’s close enough and then they’ll fly away leaving him utterly frustrated once again. Unlike the cat, the doves don’t torment Remy on purpose, at least I don’t think so. They torment Remy by being that thing he wants, forever unattainable, which just flies away.

Lots of us have doves in our trees and out of reach. We continually attempt to sneak up on our desires, hoping this time, somehow, we can catch it before it flies away.

Unlike dogs, we have the capacity of superior self- awareness, knowledge of what we’re doing and why. We have a choice as to how we respond to our adversaries.

Incidentally, the word “satan” in the Bible, in Hebrew, simply means adversary. Eventually, it came to mean a specific entity of evil rather than a generalized challenger. The satan, the adversary, in our lives is whatever tempts us to deviate from doing what is loving and good and seek power and other unworthy goals instead.

Our adversaries may be as deliberate as the cat or as innocent as the doves. We can’t stop adversaries from appearing, but we can decide how we respond. We can become angry and frustrated or we can ignore what we can’t control. We can helplessly bark at those prizes we can’t catch or we can alter our desires and quit pursuing the unattainable.

Some unattainable goals are, however, worth the effort. When Navalny returned to Russia he faced certain death at the hands of his particular adversary, the evil personified by Vladamir Putin. He became a martyr to the cause of justice and goodness. Sometimes a righteous prize is worth the sacrifice.