What Is Cat?
Written August 13th, 2008; revised September 25th, 2009.
Cat is whole. Cat is fluid and strong, in one layer, one mass of muscle and hide and fur and claws and bone and viscera. There is no delineated segregation, only one complex unit made up of hundreds of little parts that all work together to form a self.
Cat is dynamic. Cat can be lazy and soft, then go leaping up in a surge of red-blood power and claws-out traction on any surface. Cat draws no limits and boundaries on its own moods and statuses; cat shifts and changes without losing balance, without hardening or softening too much. Cat doesn't need to become elsewise, because cat is expansive enough to contain so much within it already. It's just a matter of leaning a little.
Cat is present. Cat can be aware and in-the-moment without thought, then switch over into a hunter's critical observation and analysis in a split second. Cat does not cling senselessly to its current mindset - it rolls, shifts, evolves, meanders. There is no attachment to any one mindset because all of cat's mindsets are equally cat, equally true to catself.
Cat is self-sufficient. Cat can be cautious and careful and secretive when the situation calls for it, but cat will push through even challenge, even difficulty, on its own because cat is all that there is and there is no backup for cat. Having backup is an excuse to not do it catself; it's an easy way out, a cheat, a reason not to give it cat's all because oh, there are others to pick up the slack. Without backup, cat paces catself, cat does all that is possible with its own skills and abilities and resources, and cat does not overextend catself because there's no one to watch cat when cat falls into exhaustion. Cat is often seen as lazy, because cat doesn't do what isn't necessary - conserving resources to do what is necessary.
Cat is alive. Cat is brilliantly, incredibly alive, even when cat sleeps, even when cat is tired and pained and only wants to find a shady spot to curl up, even when cat is exhausted. Cat ignores and shrugs off expectations of rigidity, predictability, conformity. Cat is as fluid as water, as changing as fire, as free as the wind. Cat walks the earth without being the earth, but cat's bones are the bones of old trees and old mountains.
Cat is cat and has no need to be anything but.