Well, Toddy the Jack Russell is not like me and there’s this kitty downstairs and she’s not like me. That is, she is a Persian/mix of something or other and really pretty and regal but I like her anyway because she is street-smart and talks a lot and can avoid getting hit by cars really well. It’s not easy to survive as a kitty in the heart of Rome.
And I was thinking, too, about doggies and how they sniff one another and sort of say, “hello, other doggie” and then they seem to be friends from then on…sort of like some humans who, when they are kids, don’t really see the differences between themselves and others and just think, “Hey, there’s someone to play with!”
And then mamas or papas or someone teaches them that differences matter and then it’s like “The King and I” and that song, “You’ve Got To Be Taught” …to be afraid of people with skins that aren’t the same color as yours or who don’t have the same religion or the same politics; in short, who don’t think like you. I’m guilty of this, too, because I really want to be a kitty, not a Jack Russell, but I’m trying to get over that.
But everyone on earth is different from everyone else, just like kitties, and you never know what you’re missing when you don’t check out a new animal (humans included) and try to find out what’s interesting about him/her/kitties/doggies/Palestinians/Israelis/the English/the Irish/the Chinese/the Japanese/the French/the Italians/the Spaniards/the Catalans/gays/straights/blacks/whites and so on and so on, all of those myriad groups of humans who seem to fight all the time and be suspicious of each other.
These humans set so much store on differences that sometimes they’re blind to similarities. That kitty downstairs hears with ears just like mine and sees with eyes just like mine (except better because she’s looking out for her safety, which I don’t much have to do) and I’m sure that her little kitty-heart goes pit-a-pat when her papa and mama are near and when people are kind to her, just as mine does.
I guess I’m an idealistic kitty. But kindness and good will has to start somewhere….
