I do two nice things for someone every day. That someone happens to be a dog. Rain or shine, sleep or none, I walk a mile in the morning and a mile in the evening with Spider. I meet other folks who also do at least one nice thing a day for a canine someone.

The whole business is embarrassing to my conscience because I realize I almost never make it a point in my daily schedule to do a concrete nice thing for a human. I rarely include in my to-do list: Write Nan a note telling her what her friendship means to me; greet the kids at the door when they come home from school; sneak up behind Calvin and give his aching shoulders a massage; ask Aimee to read me her latest poem.

I know a true story about a woman whose marriage was failing. She heard Elizabeth Elliot say on the radio to “love your enemy.” The woman had no stomach for all that, but she decided she could manage one nice deed a day toward her husband. The first day she baked a Jewish apple cake, his favorite. The second day another little something nice — just one.

The husband noticed. The wife discovered she was starting to enjoy doing it. The rest is history.