ELLA IN EUROPE

LESSONS​

 

Dogs are playmates, protectors, and aids for less-awkward socialization with other people.

 

“My single male friends, who frequently borrow her for walks, refer to Ella as the Ultimate Chick Magnet” (25).

 

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As long as you don’t abuse dogs, most of them will show love towards you (no matter how you look, how much money you have, or how old you are). Because of this, trained therapy dogs are excellent at brightening up people’s days at hospitals.

 

“A dog reminded everyone who lived with him that goodness was extant in the world, that redemption was available every time you walked through the front door. Dogs helped teach me what love means” (4).

 

“The most common reaction Ella elicits from strangers is unrestrained glee. Like a master comedian who needs only arch an eyebrow or cock his head to induce laughter, her mere presence produces smiles from people who might otherwise be having a bad day” (25).

 

“Into this horrific atmosphere entered Ella Guinevere Konik. Even as her dad struggled with the shroud of sadness that threatened to envelop his heart, she did what she knew she ought to do: bring some joy, regardless of how fleeting or permanent, into the life of everyone who seeks it, no matter what they look like or how they scream or any other irrelevancy that distracts us from the essential truth that dogs seem to know -- that every human being is a soul, and every soul needs some sunshine” (42).

 

“Though [the hospital patients] were misshapen and monstrous to the prejudiced eyes of someone like me, to Ella  they were simply another group of two-legged creatures who wanted to touch her and talk to her and maybe to play a game with her, just like every other two-legged creature she had ever met. To be the locus of attention, the furry outlet for the human impulse to express affection and feel sensual pleasure. She was just doing her job, and doing it without the bigotry and judgmentalism that infects so much of our human intercourse” (43).

 

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Dogs continue to show this unbiased love across country borders.

 

“Vienna and Venice couldn’t be more different places. Their names both start with the letter V, and, let’s see… well, they’re both cities. Dragging along a canine ambassador to both places, though, tends to obviate the starkest cultural contrasts. At the risk of sounding like a not-very-convincing greeting card, dogs teach the observant traveler that we’re not elementally so different after all. (At least when it comes to cuddly animals that crave our affection.) Germanic or Italian, American or European, when we’re around creatures like Ella, our best qualities, undiluted by nationalism, radiate outward. We’re one tribe of nice people, in spite of the hackneyed stereotypes” (121-122).

 

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Ella knows how to look for universal signs to tell if another dog is friendly or not. Similarly, we can naturally read other people’s body language, despite any language barriers.

 

“Dogs don't need a dictionary for translation; they communicate effectively among each other without uttering a word. The canine nonverbal signals -- posture of tail and ears and neck -- say everything that human handshakes and eye contact are meant to convey. Dogs can tell if the approaching stranger on four legs is cordial or nasty, and they can silently announce to the world their intentions and interests” (69).

 

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Because Ella doesn’t have a grasp of history, she doesn’t hold grudges against a group of people (like Germans or Austrians or other former Nazis) as long as they haven’t done anything bad directly to her or to those she loves. This is a hard lesson for Michael to follow.

 

“When Austrians I’ve never met take a moment from their day to sing Ella’s virtues, I feel like a father who’s just been told by the homeroom teacher that his daughter was a particularly compelling Mary in the elementary school Christmas pageant. 

 

She’s by no means a person, a point gracefully reinforced on the train ride from the Czech Republic to Austria, during which Ella was charged half the human second-class fare -- the dog rate. But she’s not a stupid beast, either. In fact, she’s a really smart beast who possesses a plethora of human virtues we humans too often neglect. Like, for instance, being kind to strangers. I grew up being taught one shouldn’t even talk to strangers, let alone befriend them. But Ella, bless her heart, seems incapable of prejudice or innate distrust. Unless given solid evidence to the contrary, she likes everyone -- and everyone likes her, especially in Europe.

 

…Despite my natural reticence, following my sweet mutt’s example, I resolve to henceforth open my heart to whatever European I may randomly encounter in my trek across their continent. Like Ella, I’m going to assume everyone, no matter how different or unfathomable, is a potential friend.

 

This ethos, I know, will be particularly difficult in Austria, which holds for me a panoply of historical associations, many of them ominous and dark. But then I remind myself that my dog and I are able to stroll freely and happily and safely through what was formerly a Nazi stronghold” (102-103).

 

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Ella doesn’t understand the significance of the different European landmarks. But she enjoys the company of her dad (and her dad enjoys Ella’s company just as much as their new adventures).

 

“Ella has no grasp of history, or geography, or cultural differences -- or any of the other abstract concepts that allegedly elevate human beings above the less learned beasts who share our planet. She knows only this: She’s somewhere that’s not her home and she’s with her dad, the latter of which is probably consolation enough for the former” (66).

 

“Sitting there in the shadow of San Rocco, I realize there may be as much pleasure in sipping cool red wine and sharing a panini with your dog as there is in viewing ancient legends rendered in colorful pigment” (135).

 

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At Cafe Checkpoint (which is by Checkpoint Charlie, which was a crossing point between the East and West sides of Berlin during the Cold War), Ella doesn’t have to worry about freedom.

 

“We Americans too often take our bountiful blessings for granted. I’m eating lunch not twenty meters from a place where the tenuous line between freedom and enslavement once was drawn. And I’m feeling grateful to be a citizen of a country where I may travel freely, speak openly, dissent passionately, worship individually, associate widely, and sleep securely, content in the knowledge that the vast imperfect democracy I live cherishes the principles that made a place like Checkpoint Charlie necessary” (74-75).

 

“I walk across the street to take the same commemorative photo all the other tourists take of Checkpoint Charlie: standing or sitting on the sandbags, looking vigilant. But I do mine with a white mutt who dreams not of freedom and peace, but of constantly replenished plates of boiled meat” (75).

 

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It’s a shame that a lot of America’s modern popular culture revolves around meaningless media. But America does value important virtues, and it is the home to some important movements (like jazz, which is still a big deal in Perugia).

 

“Vienna’s cultural richness makes a man who lives in Hollywood, birthplace of aesthetic detritus like Scooby Doo and My Wife and Kids, feel mildly retarded, as though having a home so near to where America vomits forth its popular culture could infect you with stupid germs. Hollywood: Home to Anna Nicole Smith and Steven Seagal. Vienna: Home to Mozart, Schubert, Beethoven, Schoenberg, Freud, Klimt, Schiele, and the entire Vienna Philharmonic” (111-112).

 

“Today I’m proud to be an American (with an American dog) in Perugia. I come from the country that invented jazz, the land that produced Louis and Duke, Fats and Count, Billie and Sarah -- and yes, Ella. Many of them the descendents of slaves, the offspring of families brought to America in chains, these great artists were all citizens of a country that righted one of its essential wrongs, a country that listened to the sons and daughters of the disenfranchised express their newly won freedoms and ideals in a musical form that was all about freedoms and ideals” (159).

 

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It’s interesting to think about how a lot of buildings in Europe are older than America itself. America celebrates the newness of phones, cars, houses, etc., but Europe celebrates the richness of its history.

 

“I know from reading Stephen Hawking that all of Rome’s seemingly ‘ancient’ landmarks are mere eye blinks on the incomprehensibly long continuum of Time. But, man, compared to America, this place is old” (166).

 

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From siestas to expectations to price haggle, some of the cultural differences are nice (even though traveling a doggie can complicate things).

 

“The concept (and enduring wisdom) of the siesta, a highly civilized interregnum during the hottest part of the day, becomes transparently clear to me in Perugia, where the midday sun sizzles the streets so mercilessly that Ella can’t walk on them without singeing her pads. Most of the shops in Umbria close between one and for P.M., and then post-siesta, stay open until seven-thirty or eight” (160).

 

“We negotiate the price for an hour-long cruise, a process I normally relish for the let’s-play-a-game quality. Some cultures, I’ve learned, expect haggling and bickering to be part of the deal; without it, the transaction feels incomplete. If you don’t dicker a little, the local merchant feels mildly offended, albeit financially better off than had you made a fuss. The Italians have one of those cultures. Everything is up for discussion. In this case, however I’m not going to press my luck -- and I think the gondolier (Gino is his name) knows it. Perhaps every gondolier in Venice readily accepts American dogs on their gondolas. But I’m not willing to investigate that possibility on the slim chance that Gino is, in fact, the only boatman in town who doesn’t object to canine customers” (137).

 

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Some mishaps can happen abroad.

 

• Michael got confused about how you’re supposed to pay for bus rides.

 

“Our first misdemeanor occurs when we jump on board a streetcar, assuming we must pay in transit. In fact, passengers are supposed to obtain a ticket prior to boarding, like on an airplane. (Where one does this I’ve not yet discovered). I spend the interminable ten-minute journey from the Vltava River to the art nouveau Public House, the namesti Republiky, looking over my shoulder, fearful a ticket-checker guy will throw me behind bars and impound my pup. Tortured by horrific visions of what they might do to my innocent-at-heart but guilty-by-association four-legged partner in crime, we get off two stops early” (89).

 

• While eating at a restaurant in Venice during a thunderstorm, Ella was so scared and confused that she ran off to the kitchen! Not all Italian chefs would behave nicely to this, but the one at that restaurant did (since he’s a dog-lover in a city that doesn’t have many dogs, due to the abundance of concrete and the lack of grass). They viewed Ella as a memorable visitor.

 

“My dog is loose among the food! I rush to retrieve her before the chef and owner, Marcello, calls the polizia. To my great relief, Marcello refrains from chasing the dog out of his kitchen with a broom and a cleaver. He doesn’t even yell at her in an apoplectic frenzy… He bends down from his chopping and stirring to accept a lick on the nose. ‘Aaay!’ he calls out to the rest of his staff. ‘Il cane è in cucina!’ The entire staff gathers around and begins gesticulating in the much-lampooned but incredibly charming way Italians gesticulate, as though they were all simultaneously conducting the triumphal march from Aida” (127).

 

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Death can be a hard concept for kids to grasp and a sad concept for adults to think about. Because it’s inevitable, it’s best to make the most of every moment.

 

“I quickly learned, you had to love your dog (and everyone else you adored) with all your heart before it was time to say goodbye” (8).

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