Bye, Jonas! <3

On Thursday morning my dog Jonas died. He was my companion in São Paulo from 2012 to 2015 and after my separation he lived with my ex wife Maria in Bogotá.

Today I looked through some old photos and videos. Beautiful memories that currently are painful. We got Jonas as a present from a breeder after the first Newfoundland dog that we bought from him, Bruno, died from a virus infection. Despite his perfect black and white fur Jonas was a little too small and did not have good enough hips for breeding. We got him when he was 18 months old.

Death is a weird thing to cope with, human or dog. Death is final, unique and irrevocable. I am grateful for three things that Jonas and his death taught me about life:

1. The power and beauty of unconditional love. Dogs bond with you and don't ask for anything in return (maybe food and walks). As humans we can experience the same feeling when we have kids. Our bonding and love is in most cases unconditional and stays this way, at least until our kids enter puberty. Experiencing and giving unconditional love without letting our egos, our needs or our fears get in the way is what we could all strive for. The world would be better place for sure.

2. Optimize for happiness - getting our priorities in life right. On the Monday before Jonas died I had agreed with Maria, my former wife, to meet in a park and greet the dog. I had not seen him for a pretty long time because of a COVID quarantine in Bogotá and my own laziness. Unfortunately I decided to postpone the meeting to do an interview.
   When I arrived to the veterinarian clinic on Thursday morning it was already too late and I could only enter the room when he was already dead. This made me sad as I missed my chance to see him again and say goodbye. Time is the only truly limited resource. The clock ticks as we and everyone around us approach death. Moving forward I will stop wasting my time on things that ultimately don't really matter and take time for the things that truly make me happy. Happiness is not a question of money, accomplishments or possessions that we accumulate in life. The amount of happiness that we experience is a function of being able to spend time on activities that make us happy; that bring us meaning, fulfillment or joy. It is funny that most of us fail on acting on something so obvious. Priorities! We are amazing at setting them wrong and acting against our own best interests.

3. Saying goodbye is important to be able to cope. The first step to be able to cope is to accept death. Even though I was too late to say goodbye it was important to see Jonas. It is shocking to see that the person or dog that you loved ceased to exist but this brutal reality makes it easier to cope afterwards. Death always hurts and when it punches us right in the face it gets easier to accept. I can only imagine the desperation of so many people that had loved ones die alone and being buried alone during COVID or, even worse, gone missing for years without any news. Once we accept reality all that is left is pain. It is important to give ourselves room to be sad, to cry, to hate the world and to live our pain. Time will heal the wound. Our brains know how to save most of us from depression, but we need to give our emotions the due space instead of trying to "just move on".

I feel bad for not having visited Jonas this year, but I also knew he had an amazing and happy life. In the end he was not my dog anymore but Maria's dog as he had lived with her for the past 5 years. I am happy that I was there for her as well, because she was alone in the clinic. When the veterinarian came to tell us that Jonas had died she was desolated and I am happy I could help her in that moment.

Nothing more to say but: Goodbye Jonas, and thanks for all the joy and happiness you brought to my life.