or a ladder. Help someone’s
soul heal. Walk out of your
house like a shepherd. —Djalal Ad-Din Rumi
****
From Cin Norris: Some people are born tame, maybe tame since conception—carefully sculpted and molded to fit the role envisioned by their progenitors. Genetically manipulated in vitro, softened by Mozart in utero, and a warm water birth with gentle hands, gentle voices and gentle lights. They are chained right on down to their DNA, every footprint fitting perfectly within the ones that came before them.
There are some people who should never have been born. They are beyond wild, beyond the light, beyond the shadow and bring only darkness. They know the unknowable things and speak the unspeakable—nothing you’d share with your aged granny. There are terrible things behind their mocking eyes and they never go away.
There are the unfortunates, born in the wrong time and in the wrong place. Like a modern day grocery clerk never able to get past the feeling she should be somewhere, somewhen else. The rush and brush of humanity runs cross-grain to her reality, a conflict of sound and vision. Only Jimmy Cagney, Joan Crawford and Olivia de Havilland look right, feel right. Still she continues on, hoping that somewhere a door will open and this madness will fall away.
The unexpecteds fall into two categories, the wild and the outcast. The outcast were never planned for, never saved for, never understood and never respected for the power of luck that they wield as naturally as breathing. Twisting destiny and knotting fate into an intricate lace, the outcasts don’t need you. Whatever they may want, they will simply take.
And then there are the wild. ‘Wild’ as in wild card, Wild West, wild winds and wild rage. They are monsoon thunder and the roar of lions, pegs of many changing shapes defying all the holes. They flare and flame like the first touch of Promethean fire in a darkened world. They may run away, they may give aid, and they may destroy on a whim. If you place a collar on a wild you will see a giant become a mouse. Their brightness will fade unto near transparency and the fire in their blood will turn to smoking poison.
****
From Elizabeth Maginnis: Co-workers would often come to me with their cat behavior problems. Word that I was some sort of cat guru had spread throughout the firm. Ostensibly, I was hired to work as a paralegal in a large law firm, but I believe now that my most valuable contributions grew out of the informal chats I had with people about their cats. Perhaps the Universe placed me there as a sort of ambassador for the feline species, to open the door to a greater understanding of those who can’t communicate in words.
For my entire life, I’ve been drawn more to animals than to people. My mother (and later my grandmother, when she came to live with us) wouldn’t allow cats in the family. Both of them hated seeing the neighborhood cats stalk birds, so the only pet I was allowed was the occasional goldfish. Dogs? Well, I couldn’t bear having another dog after my parents returned the puppy they bought for me when I was six. They had no patience for the time it would take to gently coax the dog and me to become friends.
I didn’t get to know cats until we allowed our young daughter to adopt one of a friend’s litter of kittens. That cat knew what she was doing; it wasn’t long before I was smitten. One cat led to two, then three, then … well, you know how that goes. I read everything on cats and cat behavior I could get my hands on, and people began to notice.
Cats tug at my heartstrings because humans so often fear their secretive nature. This, to me, is the essence of Man’s battle with Nature. Humans forget that we have dominion over Nature and cannot continue to assume that that which is Not People must submit to our will. Every living thing has its own purpose in the Universe. If I can help bridge the barrier of misunderstanding between people and cats, I will have fulfilled my purpose.
ELIZABETH A. MAGINNIS
DesertGirl Media
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