early morning ramblings

Sickness swoops in and slows down the day. The pace these days is incredible and guilt accompanies sickness or any time away.  Staring out of the window, across this crispy cold and clear courtyard towards the apartment in which Luna lives (Luna is the cat I take care of when her owners go on holiday) I see that there are no lights on and nobody is home. Someone once said to me ‘beware of cat people’ and I thought ‘what nonsense’. I asked why and she said ‘cat people have cats to be cool and then they are never ever home with their cats… and they justify it by saying “cats are independent.”’ Since then I have noticed that cat owners are never home with their cats. I owned two cats for eight years and I was a slave to their every whim, and I was almost always home with them. Cats love company more than anything (except food) but even food is a celebration of something that their humans give to them. If you have cats, don’t go out every single night. I have never understood people who go out every night… well, I mean, beyond the knowledge that they are too weak to spend any time alone.

And, on another topic, I am sorry if you just got divorced after a few months (it was very expected) but that doesn’t mean that we want to see a barrage of naked photos of you just to get back at the one you undoubtedly treated badly. Some others go to Africa for several months and post daily photos of themselves in bikinis and/or underwear surrounded by the starving locals. Why?

Pondering of late, I question how many of our crises are bourgeoise luxuries. Someone in Africa, carry a bag of raw corn on their head to sell it on the side of the road to passers-by so that they can feed their children doesn’t necessarily sit around on the couch thinking ‘am I happy? Have I fulfilled my dreams and ambitions?’ So many of us are so spoiled. We are so far beyond survival that we get depressed if we can’t find the kind of coffee we want. We go into restaurants and choose gluten-free food. Others dig through our leftovers in the bin and eat them on a bench in the park.  

All of my spare cash and charity is going to my family, animals, and children in need this Christmas. You can put a child in a third world nation through school for less than the price of your running shoes and you can feed a family for the price of one beer in Cambridge.