Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Parable of the Tuna Cat

We have a cat, a polydactyl cat. Because of his extra claws, his brain is a bit short (the extra claws tie up brain function that would otherwise go to more normal uses) and he tends to forget things, like whether or not he has breakfast.

He lives to eat tuna fish, though he is (a) always looking for something better and (b) always forgetting when he has tuna.

But you know, when he is motivated, he really keeps after his goals. They may be simple, he may get confused but that cat is always trying for tuna -- and convinced that he is succeeding (though 75% or better of the time, all we do is pick him up and drop him off at his plate that already has tuna on it -- and he celebrates as if he had just been given tuna rather than just reminded of what he has).

Which leads to two life lessons.
  1. Sometimes we are like the tuna cat -- we are out there seeking things we already have.
  2. Sometimes we are like the tuna cat -- you can tell what we really want by what we keep after.
Lots of people think they want something, but until they go after it like the tuna cat does, they don't really want it.

2 comments:

adamf said...

Awesome. I love home-made parables. Cats, even in all their glory, have a lot to teach us. :)

Stephen said...

So does Kipling when he talks about cats ;)