Thoughts inspired by a cat
Half a month ago, a cat came scrambling in off the balcony. It lives with me now.
At first, its demands were simple: just a place to crash. So much so that on the first day it refused to leave — even though I had nothing to feed it. I opened the door and carried it out; it darted straight back in. I carried it out and quickly shut the door; it stood outside yowling at the door, dead set on getting back in.
Later I got it some food, gave it a bath, bought cat food and kept its bowl full every day, bought cat litter and set up a toilet.
Every time I open the front door, it comes over to take a look — but it doesn’t step out.
Life keeps getting better. It doesn’t have to worry about food, drink, or the litter box. It’s getting stronger, braver, and it’s developed a temper. Two weeks in, it’s bouncing off the walls doing whatever it pleases. It’s got it in for my network cable — swatting, pouncing, until it gets tangled up and left dangling in midair, yowling for help…
When it hears noise outside the door, it walks over too. Thinking about going out, I guess. Heh, I knew this day would come. No rush.
Maybe one day its urge to explore the outside world will hit the threshold, and with the smell of good food drifting in through the door, it’ll slip out during some careless moment when I open it, and take off without a backward glance, off to explore an infinite, unknown new world. Maybe opportunity is waiting for it out there — a change of scene might mean a better life. After all, I’m the kind of guy who never even leaves the house; where this exercise-loving cat’s needs are concerned, we’re hopelessly mismatched. Or maybe its luck won’t be so good: curiosity satisfied, but the easy life gone. The day passes, it’s hungry, it’s thirsty, and a whole pile of troubles shows up…
My mind immediately starts modeling the different possibilities:
Possibility 1: It slips out, happily trots over to someone else’s home, and sweetly meows at a family eating dinner. They’re delighted and take it in. From then on, the cat lives a happy life.
Possibility 2: It slips out, happily trots over to someone else’s home, and sweetly meows at a table of strangers eating dinner. They’re delighted and take it in. Two weeks later, the cat finds this boring life tiresome again, picks a random day, and runs away from home.
Possibility 3: It slips out, happily follows the smell to someone else’s home, but they ignore it. It meows pitifully and sweetly outside, meows until it’s hungry, then comes back at night and knocks on my door, back to a carefree life of eating, drinking, and sleeping.
Possibility 4: It slips out, happily follows the smell, running and running. Where there’s a will there’s a way — even for a cat — and it finally finds something good to eat. After eating its fill, it forgets the way home. So it keeps going door to door, looking for a kindred spirit to take it in. Hmm, living the free and easy life…
Possibility 5: It slips out, happily follows the smell to someone else’s home, but they ignore it. It meows pitifully and sweetly outside, meows until it’s hungry — but it’s forgotten the way home. So it becomes a stray cat, one meal away from no meal, with the next meal possibly stewing in a pot. At night, hungry and sleepy, it wants to find a place to shelter, wants to find something good to eat, misses its old life, and feels miserable — but there’s no going back.
As a cat, what should it be after? I’m not a cat, so I can’t really know. But I do think that as cats, we already have a pretty comfortable life, and we should learn to appreciate it.
This reminds me of Shinjuku Incident, which I watched not long ago. The narration and dialogue go:
The most primitive human desire is nothing more than food and warmth. But once people see what they don’t have, the desires kick in.
You have to learn to be content
A group of people band together because they’ve been bullied, or because of some demand. Once they build up power, the rights follow. That’s how violent gangs have evolved since ancient times. Unfortunately, power changes human nature. The old habit of swallowing your pride turns into arrogance, and the behavior starts spinning out of control.
I’m not saying a cat shouldn’t refuse to ever go outside. The point is that we should cherish what we already have first, and not lose ourselves to the flashy temptations of the outside world. So desire is something you absolutely have to learn to control. Human Weaknesses says that men are all lustful and women all love to look pretty. And this cat is a glutton. Same principle: cats and people alike are likely to trip over these impulses. So purify your mind, shake off temptation, and be content with what you have.