The Olympian Way: Lessons from Neighborhood Cats
In his “Odes to Common Things”, Chilean poet Pablo Neruda sets aside a special “Oda al Gato” (Ode to the Cat)
“...El hombre quiere ser pescado y pájaro,
la serpiente quisiera tener alas,
el perro es un león desorientado,
el ingeniero quiere ser poeta,
la mosca estudia para golondrina,
el poeta trata de imitar la mosca,
pero el gato
quiere ser sólo gato
y todo gato es gato
desde bigote a cola,
desde presentimiento a rata viva,
desde la noche hasta sus ojos de oro.
No hay unidad
como él,
no tienen
la luna ni la flor
tal contextura:
es una sola cosa
como el sol o el topacio...”
“...Men would like to be fish or fowl,
snakes would rather have wings,
and dogs are would-be lions.
Engineers want to be poets,
flies emulate swallows,
and poets try hard to act like flies.
But the cat
wants nothing more than to be a cat,
and every cat is pure cat
from its whiskers to its tail,
from sixth sense to squirming rat,
from nighttime to its golden eyes.
Nothing hangs together
quite like a cat:
neither flowers nor the moon
have
such consistency.
It’s a thing by itself,
like the sun or a topaz...”
Traveling the universe teaches you a lot of things but when visiting Earth on a quick detour, like Pablo, we found ourselves to be fascinated by cats. For those of you who don’t know, cats are a well-fed Earth-dwelling organism which gathers energy from the sun and from assuming an air of utter self-confidence and thus, superiority over other beings. Here are some of the lessons we have learned from observing earthling neighborhood cats:
Lesson 1: Independence
Independence doesn’t come from the number of miles you’ve traveled from home. No, it’s a state of mind. You could be as close as your own backyard and all you need to do to be independent is just live life how you want to.
Lesson 2: Elegance
In all situations preserve your standard of appearance. That way, if you do something horrendously stupid, you still look good doing it.
Lesson 3: Mischief
It is important to test physics every once in a while, just to be sure it’s still working. To do this, find an object at the edge of a precipice and gently nudge it until it falls. If it falls, you have demonstrated that gravity exists - you are a genius. If it falls and breaks, you have demonstrated that sacrifice is part of discovery - stand by your action, that’s a legendary point to make. (This one is particularly important for us and is a strategy we regularly use when we land on a new planet and need to figure out how gravity works there).
Lesson 4: Meditation
Snoozes in the sun are sustenance. (And a great way to preserve some energy if Kvas supplies are running low)
Lesson 5: Curiosity
What doesn’t kill you (or at least considerably scare you) was not quite pushing the limits of your curiosity far enough.
Lesson 6: Elevation
If you can see your predators then you can pretend that you don’t care that you see them which solidifies your status in the power dynamic.
Lesson 7: Sensitivity
If you snuck into a stranger’s house through the crack they left in the window and you only went in there in the first place because you were following lesson 5 then you have every right to be upset and totally freak out when the owner of the house returns and kinda spooks you. How dare they spook you! You were there first.
Lesson 8: Entitlement
One of the easiest ways to become a Devine presence in any room you step foot into is to simply know that you are Devine and deserving.
Lesson 9: Superiority
When you see a closed door, scratch at the door and yell until the door is opened. At that point, assert your superiority by reminding whoever opened the door that you didn’t really care for it to be opened. But now that they are up, they are welcome to enjoy your elegance as you walk away.
* A note from Travis and Jess: The Olympian Way brew pays tribute to the first place where we lived together. It was an earthy, sweet-smelling place. A row of wild fennel lined our view of the foggy, moody Pacific Ocean. The fennel also served as a preferred hunting, playing, and hiding ground for the many neighborhood cats who became our friends and entertainers. This is the last brew that we completed before moving to our new place down the coast.
