My Year (2025) in Photos: #1

I'd like to share some of my favorite photographs from my year, whether for the aesthetic quality or for the story they tell. But mostly because of how they make me feel and remember. Here's one.

Number One

Margo and Me January 2, 2025

Margo is my dog. We got her for my son Charlie when he turned 11, but she quickly became my dog, since I feed her and walk her and generally tend to her needs. She sleeps with me, mammal to mammal, with as much surface area contact as possible.

This photo was taken after she was attacked by a dog on San Luis Mountain when Derek was walking her and I was down in Southern California seeing colleges with Charlie. Derek's panicked call was awful and revealed to me in that moment just how much Margo means to him.

I did not grow up with dogs and always considered myself a cat person. Even though Margo can be annoyingly stubborn, I am in awe of her, of how much I love her and of how much comfort she gives me. My attachment to this animal is almost frightening, because I know she's likely going to break my heart someday--and already nearly did.

In his commencement speech at Kenyon College, the writer David Foster Wallace said:

The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day.

I remember thinking that that is what parenting is--sacrificing for your children "over and over in myriad, petty, unsexy ways every day." And now that also applies to Margo. Of course, sacrificing too much can turn us into martyrs and can foster resentment; sacrificing the right amount can foster love, deep love, and, according to Foster Wallace, real freedom.

Margo, let's cuddle!