This discussion reminds me of a wonderful poem I heard on the Writer's Almanac on cats. Friends of mine recently lost their cat of 14 years to a brain tumor and the sadness over their cat's loss was powerful. I've never thought of myself as a "cat person", but we've got three of them now. My wife and I thought the cats might calm our kids during rough times and help them develop a sense of responsibility. I don't know if it has "worked", but I enjoy having them around. Here's the poem:
exactly right by Charles Bukowski the strays keep arriving: now we have 5 cats and they are smart, spontaneous, self- absorbed, naturally poised and awesomely beautiful. one of the finest things about cats is that when you're feeling down, very down, if you just look at the cat at rest, at the way they sit or lie and wait, it's a grand lesson in persevering and if you watch 5 cats at once that's 5 times better. no matter the extra demands they make no matter the heavy sacks of food no matter the dozens of cans of tuna from the supermarket: it's all just fuel for their amazing dignity and their affirmation of a vital life we humans can only envy and admire from afar. "exactly right" by Charles Bukowski, from The Night Torn with Mad Footsteps: New Poems. © Black Sparrow Press, 2001. Michael On Jan 5, 2011, at 9:52 AM, Pollak, Edward wrote: > > > This article is most timely for me, Stephen. I am thinking about getting > another dog (our last one died about 10 years ago) after I retire in May. > Given that the little regular exercise I get involves walking to class, I'm > thinking that perhaps having a dog to walk will force me to at least do a > little walking. Of course, that prospect loses some of its appeal when I look > out the window & see my neighbor walking his shih tsus in the cold, slush, > snow, and rain while carrying a little plastic bag of dog feces. > > Ed > > > Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D. > Department of Psychology > West Chester University of Pennsylvania > http://home.comcast.net/~epollak/home.htm > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > Husband, father, grandfather, biopsychologist, & bluegrass fiddler...... in > approximate order of importance. > > Subject: Healing power of pets? > From: [email protected] > Date: Tue, 04 Jan 2011 23:35:23 -0500 > X-Message-Number: 23 > > Not so much. > > One more for the annals of psychological myth. > > See http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/04/opinion/04herzog.html > > --- > You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. > To unsubscribe click here: > http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13405.0125141592fa9ededc665c55d9958f69&n=T&l=tips&o=7673 > (It may be necessary to cut and paste the above URL if the line is broken) > or send a blank email to > leave-7673-13405.0125141592fa9ededc665c55d9958...@fsulist.frostburg.edu --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=7675 or send a blank email to leave-7675-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
