My Kitten Knows of Dao
Kara and I have acquired a new kitten. She is a small, short-haired, twelve-week old gray kitten. Her name is Artemis. We took her on a ‘trial’ basis to see our other cat, a big, seven-year old calico named Luna, would accept her. After a week it’s clear that we are going to keep her. I said I’d never be an owner of more than one cat at a time, but in a short time I’ve become quite fond of this kitten.
We currently confine her to the basement to be a master of her own domain in a space where she can get into the least trouble. All day, she bats around her toys, scratches her post, and runs up and down the stairs. On the days when Kara and I work upstairs, Artemis will eventually mewl, asking us to let her out, or at the very least come downstairs to play. Like Luna, she seems to be happiest when other people are present, even if she’s ignoring them.
She eats 3-4 times a day, spilling her food on the floor as she pushes it around with her snout. Her water is as likely to end up on her paws and on the floor as it is her mouth. Before drinking, she’ll test the water by quickly dipping her paw into the water, and then tip the bowl over to spill water on the floor. She plays longer and has more energy that I’ve seen in a long time. Even while I write this, she is behind my laptop, pushing it over and trying to close it. So young and she has already learned how distracting technology is.
Currently, I sit here on my meditation pad, writing at the table that has functioned as a calligraphy table. In the past few weeks, I’ve taken up calligraphy as a hobby. My characters are terrible, and both my Mandarin and Japanese teachers would be ashamed of my stroke order, but it is something that clears the mind after a long day of skull-numbing work. Out of approximately 50 sheets of rice paper, I finally drew a couple of characters I liked enough to hang up temporarily. These included characters from both Chinese and Japanese, but the one I have enjoyed looking at recently is 道 (Dao). This character is same Dao as the Dao de Jing, or Book of the Way. It is the central text of philosophical Daoism, a philosophy I find myself more drawn too each time I re-expose myself to it.
As I came downstairs yesterday, the kitten had torn down all the hangings except the one of 道. She thought nothing of it, and instead ignored just that sheet in favor of tossing and turning on the papers she had strewn over the floor. Without a single thought to the matter, she follows the 道 of being a cat, unburdened by anything else. Perhaps I ended up with a Daoist kitten so she could teach me a lesson.
