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My cat (my greatest teacher) is so good at being a cat.
Everything about her is perfectly cat-like, and even in her most annoyingly cat-like moments (i.e. jumping up on a shelf and breaking things) are well within her right and within her range of proclivities unique to her species.
I think a lot about this when I remind myself that being good at being a human means being good at making mistakes, at missing the mark, at flailing around not knowing what’s going on or what I’m doing.
"Ah, I’m just human-ing!" I’ll tell myself, the way I tell myself that Sunflower is just cat-ing when she scratches my furniture.
Seeing humans as animals gives me so much compassion for all of us. We are silly, social, egotistical, highly creative creatures who are capable of thousands of emotions and ways to communicate.
To be polished and flawless is to be non-human, and unfortunately I am not that. Oh, to be a cardboard cut-out!
So, I foible my way through the day. I make mistakes I’ve made a hundred times, I have to ask for forgiveness. I get extremely jealous of someone I love. I say something I know I shouldn’t, and then I feel guilty. I forget something really important, I don’t show up when I should, I never got around to reading that one book and I probably never will.
If I were a beloved pet, I can only imagine my loving companion saying, “Oh, she’s just human-ing. Human-ing today, are we?”
And then I do something wonderfully endearingly human, like laugh, or have an idea, or share a drawing.
My cat (my greatest teacher) is so good at being a cat.
Everything about her is perfectly cat-like, and even in her most annoyingly cat-like moments (i.e. jumping up on a shelf and breaking things) are well within her right and within her range of proclivities unique to her species.
I think a lot about this when I remind myself that being good at being a human means being good at making mistakes, at missing the mark, at flailing around not knowing what’s going on or what I’m doing.
"Ah, I’m just human-ing!" I’ll tell myself, the way I tell myself that Sunflower is just cat-ing when she scratches my furniture.
Seeing humans as animals gives me so much compassion for all of us. We are silly, social, egotistical, highly creative creatures who are capable of thousands of emotions and ways to communicate.
To be polished and flawless is to be non-human, and unfortunately I am not that. Oh, to be a cardboard cut-out!
So, I foible my way through the day. I make mistakes I’ve made a hundred times, I have to ask for forgiveness. I get extremely jealous of someone I love. I say something I know I shouldn’t, and then I feel guilty. I forget something really important, I don’t show up when I should, I never got around to reading that one book and I probably never will.
If I were a beloved pet, I can only imagine my loving companion saying, “Oh, she’s just human-ing. Human-ing today, are we?”
And then I do something wonderfully endearingly human, like laugh, or have an idea, or share a drawing.