They're so used to being made to laugh that some people laughed when Jon Stewart burst into tears. The host of the acclaimed “The Daily Show” – a reference for so many advantages that do not fit in this column, although I can't help but quote one: the discovery of John Oliver, the person who, since his “Last Week Tonight “ the best half hour of guaranteed television of the week – returned after a nine-year absence to cover the American election race and didn't cry, even though she could have cried over Trump's data in the primaries, she was heartbroken because of her dog Dipper had died the day before. Stewart recalled how she met him: A decade ago, she and her children were helping raise money for an animal shelter, and at the end of the day someone introduced them to a beautiful brindle pit bull that had lost a leg after being run over was. It was love at first sight. “In a world full of good boys, you were the best,” he said, not holding back his tears. It's a severe pain to share, I know it well, I saw the clip in the vet's waiting room after my cat Pachin was diagnosed with lymphoma during what was supposed to be a routine visit, and Stewart's tears mingled I held back while they talked to me without me listening about chemotherapy and non-invasive protocols.
If a city council hadn't been involved, someone in the audience would probably have shouted, “Hey, Jon, what's wrong with these people!” Those of us who think of our animals as family are always under suspicion. If you regret the dozens of non-human lives lost in the Valencia fire, there will always be those who accuse you of ignoring people, as if one pain excludes the other; as if we would suffer less if we suffered more; As if love was finite and we were wasting it on little things. Not only do we have to be sad, but we also have to pass a moral test.
When we saw the pictures of the rescue, many of us wondered what we would have done with our animals. A friend who lives on the ninth floor wondered if it would be crazy to buy ropes to lower down the facade in the event of a disaster. It is no greater madness than what I suspected as I watched the harrowing news coverage. There will be those who downplay our grief, and even those who believe that our tears belong to the second category, even though our pain is first rate.
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