Saturday, July 28, 2007

That Which We Do Not Understand...

When I first saw the little incidental story about Oscar  on the aol welcome screen, I immediately thought, " Oh! A spirit guide!"

Oscar the cat lives in a nursing home. He was raised among spirits spending their final hours, days, weeks on this plane of existence. He apparently is able to intuit which spirits are about to depart, and chooses to share those souls’ last earthly hours curled up beside them…leading them home, perhaps?

My first thought was, "What a comforting presence!" The story made me think—how little we really know about life, and the afterlife, and the spirits that may stand between the two.

Within a matter of hours, that little blurb of media attention—the story that quizzically contemplated the nature of Oscar’s talent—was distorted into the worst possible B-movie scripts. I saw him called everything from "Dr. Catvorkian" to "the feline Grim Reaper." News wires initially sympathetic to the significance of Oscar’s mission, have since portrayed him as the creepy star of some sci-fi horror fantasy.  Trust human beings to mock and ridicule things outside our realm of understanding! 

We just don’t (won’t?) get it, do we?

7 comments:

  1. No, we don't get it.  Cats are simply amazing with how tuned in they are to the less tangible.  I have one friend with a cat who predicts her migraines and another epilectic friend whose cat knows when she's about to have a seizure.  One of my late cats, an adopted semi-feral stray, always practically ignored me unless I'd been off my anti-depressant medication for long enough to start the slide down the slippery slope, and then she would practically glue herself to my chest.  I hate to repeat myself, but they are simply amazing beings, and we humans just have to mock what we can't understand.

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  2. Too true. But what can we expect from a culture that wouldn't recognize the ancient spirits if they came up and kicked them in the butt. And they just might. I can think of worse guides to start me on my last journey than a little purring fuzzball. :-)

    Jackie

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  3. Thankfully, all I read about this remarkable little creature was a modest blurb on the front page of our local paper.  I found it fascinating, believable and most definitely an indication that there's a whole lot going on "out there" that we don't know about....and perhaps, we're not supposed to know.  

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  4. Meredith, I have to disagree with part of your comment (and thanks for stopping by...I miss you!)  I don't really believe there's anything we're not SUPPOSED to know.  Especially things that would help us relate to each other, other creatures, and our physical/spiritual world.  In fact, I think there are things we intentionally don't know because they're not easy or comfortable to know.  The saying goes that knowledge is power, but I really believe that knowledge is harmony.  

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  5. Thanks for the link, I loved this story.  We had a cat for 17 years, Mr. Daisy, who was like the dog, Nanny? in Peter Pan, in watching over our 4 kids.  Well, for that matter, if anyone was down, Mr. Daisy sensed it and came and stayed close.  It's disturbing that we must ridicule what we don't understand.

    J

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  6. I really enjoyed your entry and your response to Meredith.   U.S. society definitely does not encourage the part of our brains which the ancients understood could connect to a spiritual world.   I only hope that all of the media attention doesn't end up interfering with Oscar's ministry.
    *debbi*

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  7. I get it, I got it and I will continue to keep my mind and heart open to all the possibilities.   Here, just before Oscar was reported on, was a news story about a dog in a not too distant town who lives in a nursing home and provides the same comfort and duties as Oscar.  What a wonderful, peaceful, calming way to move forward.

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