My family used to keep cats. The first one I remember came to our home when I was in junior high. He was a black-brown-white tri-color. He was with us for a few years and disappeared, presumably he got involved in a car accident or something. Too bad.
The next one, a yellowish brown-white female, was with my parents for a long time. She came to our home as an adopted kitten while I was in high school, and stayed with my parents even after I left the house for school. She lived for about 20 years.
While I was away from my parent's home, I did not keep animals. I had a fish tank with tropical fishes and water plants instead. I had to give it away when I left Kyoto to move to New York, though. The tank went to a coffee shop.
By that time, my sister seemed to acquire a taste for keeping cats. She started keeping two grey-blue American Short-hairs. They were twins. When my mother and I visited her place in Tokyo, they were still young and very active at night. They were not vocal at all, but they were running around almost all night, like a couple of Ninjas. Some time ago I heard one of them got sick. I wonder how they are doing.
While I was in my previous apartment in Oklahoma City, there was a neighbor's black cat. He was friendly. We nicknamed him Noisy and played with him (or he let us play with him. He was a cat, after all).
Sure, cats are not as useful as dogs for practical purposes like as security guards. My wife pointed out that cats may be useful for keeping mice and wasps in check. I am not certain I was fully convinced of the usefulness. But I love cats for their independence.
Since we are adopting a black cat (my wife's personal favorite), after much debate we named the cat Deja (full name Deja Vu) after our favorite movie the Matrix. Other finalist names included Chess (after the Cheshire cat), Tango or Gotan (after what we do, and after a Japanese song (Original Italian) Kuroneko no Tango [Black Cat Tango]), Nero (Italian for black), Kuro (Japanese for black) and Merlin (wizard for King Arthur).
It is still in an acclimation period, and we have to teach him to behave. For now, he seems to be an adorable good cat and we are very happy. Today we went to buy some more supplies.
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In the last entry I wrote about the market and people. The notion that we people are in the marketplace and in competition is somewhat hallowing. Especially when we realize that we (or some of us) occasionally see other people as mere services or a product. But competition in the market is not all.
What is the something else? It is love.
Love is something that makes us overlook or forgive small (or sometimes big) flaws in us. With love, we see a person as a whole package and do not see him/her as a service or a product.
Let's take a "job" to illustrate this point. Let's say we apply for a job opening. In this case, the premise is that the most qualified, able, "get the job done" person gets the job. It is a competition in the market, fair and square. Someone wins and others lose.
But in reality, not all jobs are filled by the most qualified, able and competent person. Think of a family business. The job is filled by a family member, who can get the job done adequately, but is likely not the very best or the most competent in the world.
To find a job, people use connections. "Connection" is a way of referring to an applied form of love.
The religious claim I mentioned in the last entry, "equality before God", is another way of telling people about the love. My understanding of the Judeo-Christian command "Love your neighbor" is that we should love our neighbor in this sense [i.e. overlook or forgive small (or sometimes big) flaws] and live in peace.
In life, we go for competition. Yet, there is always someone better in competition. Market inefficiency ("I am not competing in the market with him") and love ("It doesn't matter whether I win or lose in the competition. They still love me and I still love them") are two major ways to cope with the inevitable loss we encounter in life now and then.
Love gives us comfort and a sense of acceptance. Competition motivates us to improve, to step out of the small comfort zone we live in and achieve something better. Competition is not all bad. Competition helps us to achieve our best.
Knowing these two principles operating in our lives ("Competition in the market" and "Love") helps us to live with peace in mind. It is a matter of balance, or knowing which one to use and when.
While writing this entry, I realized that Love is like Money (see my previous thought about money in http://beginningargentinetango.blogspot.com/2013/02/life-creation-of-value-and-money.html). You can either be a giver or a taker, and it is better to choose to be a giver. In that way you will likely get more love in return.
