Accustomation Quotes

“Our house was outside the city, off one of the blacktop roads. We had us a big dog that my daddy would keep on a chain in the front yard. A big part German shepherd. I hated that chain but we didn’t have a fence, we were right off the road there. That dog hated that chain. But he had dignity. What he’d do, he’d never go out to the length of that chain. He’d never even go out to where that chain got tight. Even if a mailman pulled up, or a salesman. Out of dignity, this dog pretended like he chose this one area to stay in that just happened to be inside the length of the chain. He just up and made it not relevant. Maybe he wasn’t pretending—maybe he really up and chose that little circle for his own world. He had a power to him. All his life on that chain. I loved that damned dog.”
― David Foster Wallace, The Pale King