4 Dec 2007

my swearing neighbour and her weight of love

as those who know me know, i am a feline lover. yup, it cat's rule and dogs drool for me. (i do like dogs, but they do drool).
one day when i came home, i found this notice at the lift landing:
"stop leaving your kittens at my corridor! i will CURSE you!"

that was strong. wow, the person who put up this sign must detest animals, i thought to myself.

well lo, yesterday i met the person who put up the sign. it was none other than the rather famous-in-the-nighbourhood cat-lady. she lives on the ground floor and has several cats outside her home on 24-7 surveillance duty.

she spewed the curses not out of hate for animals but for love of them. for every unwanted animal she finds at her door, she has to expend time and money to send them to the SPCA. i found out she works as a home-service masseue after her cleaning job's pay package suffered a dramatic 200-dollar reduction.

the weight of love.

she totally loses it that people will be so heartless and take her so much for granted.

i think those who dispose of their kitties at her place must have rationalised their way without thought for her. i was proved right when i bumped into someone and shared her plight. The reply: "but she loves cats what!"
She does love cats but she has not signed up to be the feline-rescue mission of the estate!

this only shows me one thing: it is so easy for us to think along our line of thought and completely miss another (perhaps more valid) viewpoint altogether.

as this episode goes to show, we can really get on each other's nerves without intending to. the only cure it seems would be to feel some other nerves on a regular basis - practice empathy - then, such wildly maddening things need not plague our communities small and large.

1 comment:

  1. i just wanted you to know that i'm reading here, and that i love that story.
    nicely illustrates this point i was trying to get across to a friend just the other day. :)
    nice.
    i've been thinking about the wonderous impact of storytelling as well. :)
    keep telling those stories! they're important! :)
    love! evan.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for sharing your thoughts and heart here, and helping to to build a real, faith-full community together!