Do cats believe in God?
I can hear the jokes now—the Great Litter Box in the Sky…the dog’s the devil (spewing high fructose corn syrup everywhere, no less!)...but I know I’m not the only one to ponder this question.
Bing, per the animal communicator, practices feng shui in the apartment, so at the very least he’s an animist. I’m sorry for him that he has to negotiate with the couch, though—totally low on the energy scale. But, to be fair, very accommodating…
We do know that the main character in Paul Gallico’s novel, Thomasina, did have a belief system—in fact, she thought she WAS God. In the movie version, The Three Lives of Thomasina, the viewer gets to ride shot-gun on her cosmological journey:
Technically, she believes in a Goddess—specifically Bast, known to have been worshipped in ancient Egypt, where cats wore bling and ate whatever they wanted off their family’s plates at dinner.
(OMG, you guys! I think that must have been a divine message from another world. Something compelled me to do an image search of Flavor Flav + cat. Why would I be randomly thinking of Flavor Flav on a Saturday morning, even though Flavor of Love is my hands-down, all-time favorite reality show? I always knew he was inherently a good person, not automatically eliminating Somethin that time she, um, eliminated something (Season 2, “Something Stinkin’ in the House of Flav).
Back to Thomasina, “flying wildly” through space, “diving and spinning” in the mists of time. Or is it “midst” of time? I like the latter—if anyone can navigate through the middle of something that has no beginning or end, cats can!
And you can only imagine how I feel about the cats chosen to protect the temple! They do sound like goats, don’t they? But I like goats, so it’s all good.
Music to travel through the midst of time by
Season Cycle, XTC
It’s growing gre-ee-een! ‘Nuff said.
Feel Flows, The Beach Boys
You go, Carl!
Stephanie F:
ReplyDeletePune, your mind's gymnastics are inspiring and exhausting. What a brilliant blending of pop culture and metaphysical musings. Great job! I give you two big paws up. By the way, my cat, Annie, is most likely an agnostic. She doesn't seem to have a firm belief in anything yet. She's still taking everything in, and is making up her mind about all she sees and can't see.
Stephanie, thank you, thank you!! Have I told you how much I love your comments, they're so writerly...but of course! I think Annie should lead the way for agnostics everywhere...hey, how old is she?
ReplyDelete"Your mind's gymnastics"--What a fantastic, apt description of Pune's brain! Love it.
ReplyDeleteP, this is not entirely related, but your post reminded me of the Roald Dahl story in which the composer Lizst is reincarnated as a cat and turns up in a lady musician's home. The woman dotes on him so much that her husband becomes increasingly jealous...and, well, it's not a happy ending for the cat. Remind me to lend it to you, you'd like it.
Annie is two years old, 5 months (or so we estimate based on the shelter's guess). We adopted her on Feb. 23, and she was supposedly two years old, 3 months then.
ReplyDeleteShe's very playful and curious. She's also growing more comfortable with us and her surroundings on a daily basis. Cute anecdote: she saw the insides of a refrigerator for the first time the other day when she followed me into the kitchen. Annie couldn't get over how bright, cold, and full of food it was. Very funny.