In praise of mutts.

I’m not a pet person, but despite what people often assume, I grew up with dogs. Across my childhood, we had two different mutts in the family: Keith and Harley.

Who names a dog “Keith?” Well, we did. We got Keith at a charity auction where my family was engaged in a bidding war with a guy named “Keith.” Upon seeing my brother and I visibly upset at the prospect of losing out on the bid, Keith ceded the top bid and let us win.

So, we named the dog after him. Cheers.

“Harley” on the other hand was named as such because he had a jet black tail that reminded us of a Harley Davidson.

Both dogs were mutts. Which, it turns out, was a good thing.

Mutts live longer, healthier lives.

This isn’t a guess, the data tells us that because mixed breed dogs inherit a wider gene pool they are less prone to inherit recessive genetic conditions that show up among purebred dogs. Additionally, mutts are visually and structurally unique due to their diverse genetic heritage.

Basically: It is better for a dog to be a mutt than a purebred. Mutts, as a group, are typically stronger, smarter, and live longer than their purebred peers.

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Alan Jacobs described C.S. Lewis as “omnivorously interested.”1

Lewis was a true medieval mind in his desire to see the whole cosmos, with all of its variety and diversity, as a coherent whole. He read and wrote on medieval and renaissance literature, classical languages, literary criticism and theory, moral philosophy, and Christian theology.

He loved drinking beer with his friends and going on walks across the countryside with his brother. He wrote a sci-fi trilogy, a children’s fantasy series, a highly literary adaptation of a Greek myth, and published across a diverse range of non-fiction interests. His education and reading was varied and inter-disciplinary.

In other words, C.S. Lewis was a mutt.

He had a diverse array of influences and interests. His output was hard to categorize.

He was hard to pin down. Hard to “type.”

'“Omnivorously interested” could also describe:

• G.K. Chesterton: Authored over 80 books, 200 short stories, 4,000 newspaper essays, and 5 plays across a 40-year career.

• Abraham Kuyper: Pastor, Author, Founder of the Free University, Dutch Prime Minister

• Dorothy Sayers: Wrote crime fiction and Christian apologetics, worked in ad copy, was a Dante scholar, produced a radio play on the life of Christ, argued for classical education.

• Hildegard Von Bingen: A Benedictine abbess who wrote songs, did medical research, and created her own language.

History is full of mutts: dancing, singing, praying, writing, building, researching.

Mutts are hard to pin down, hard to shut up.

They walk through the world fully alive to the wonder of it all.

I think it's clear: The future belongs to the mutts.

In a world of specialization and algorithmic predictably, it is a superpower to become unpredictably interested. To have the silicon overlords so confused that they have no idea what to show you. To give your attention to the wonder of God’s world so freely that the trivialized distractions don’t count for much anymore.

Read everything. Live as a joyful amateur. Be humble enough to be curious, curious enough to ask questions.

Eat the peach and let the juice run down your chin. Then think about what makes it sticky. Write a song about the taste. Tell a friend.

Cook without a recipe. Develop taste.

John Calvin called the world the “theater of God.” Mutts are people who embrace this theater. Who see “Christ play in ten thousand places.” (Hopkins)

They are the day dreamers who scribble poems on lunch break. The accountants who read Austen at night. The hobbyists who keep dabbling.

Among the Christians: Mutts confess with the Anglicans, study with the Presbyterians, pray with the Pentecostals, plant churches with the Baptists, recite the creed with the Catholics, and sing with charismatics.

You want a challenge? Become a mutt. Become unpredictably interested.

The world’s too big and wonderful to only look through one frame.

Let the robots specialize.

Put two or three of those curly plastic straws in the milkshake. Sip from the one that catches your attention today.

Kyle Worley is a pastor and author. Find his books wherever books are sold. Subscribe here to get weekly (free!) essays like the one above.