Anthony Cerilli
“Futile”
Each morning, I let my dog out the backdoor to go to the bathroom. She sniffs meticulously around the yard for five to ten minutes before choosing a spot and in an almost frantic state, relieves herself. After finishing, she takes about five steps in a random direction and, using her hind legs, swipes the ground several times to seemingly bury what she had just done, but barely even moves a blade of grass in the process. After this is complete, her demeanor changes, and she trots off with satisfaction and complacency.
This behavior is most assuredly connected to an evolutionary territorial or cleanliness advantage, however it bears almost no weight in the contemporary existence of domestic canines, and even if it did, she is really bad at the task and probably wouldn’t produce the necessary result. While it may appear as if this action is futile, defined as “incapable of producing any useful result; pointless,” it may actually be more futile to ask this question of the dog in the first place. The power in the word futile lies in the word produce, which implies an action. Can the dog actually participate in a futile action …show more content…
Our ability to compare past vs. present to highlight what is “better” now allows for us to either ignore or not have the ability to comprehend fully the potential and inevitable trajectories of specific decisions so far into the future that would find them in a pointless state. We are in a continual state of uncertainty, and to assess the potential futility of every decision would be an impossible
“Futile”
Each morning, I let my dog out the backdoor to go to the bathroom. She sniffs meticulously around the yard for five to ten minutes before choosing a spot and in an almost frantic state, relieves herself. After finishing, she takes about five steps in a random direction and, using her hind legs, swipes the ground several times to seemingly bury what she had just done, but barely even moves a blade of grass in the process. After this is complete, her demeanor changes, and she trots off with satisfaction and complacency.
This behavior is most assuredly connected to an evolutionary territorial or cleanliness advantage, however it bears almost no weight in the contemporary existence of domestic canines, and even if it did, she is really bad at the task and probably wouldn’t produce the necessary result. While it may appear as if this action is futile, defined as “incapable of producing any useful result; pointless,” it may actually be more futile to ask this question of the dog in the first place. The power in the word futile lies in the word produce, which implies an action. Can the dog actually participate in a futile action …show more content…
Our ability to compare past vs. present to highlight what is “better” now allows for us to either ignore or not have the ability to comprehend fully the potential and inevitable trajectories of specific decisions so far into the future that would find them in a pointless state. We are in a continual state of uncertainty, and to assess the potential futility of every decision would be an impossible