I’m a teacher and do this with positive feedback I receive from my students. It helps whenever I dark out and feel like I can’t cut it as an educator any longer.

I recall taking an anthropology class in college where we learned about an ethnic group in China known as the Musuo. The Musuo had a belief that once humans had a very short lifespan and dogs much longer lifespan. The Musuo believe that at some point in history, dogs traded lifespans with people so humans could live longer. Since dogs provided this service to humanity, the Musuo highly revere dogs in their culture. I always thought that was a very touching bit of mythology.

Mosuo

I recommend watching Happiness (1998) with your friends and family.