All my sisters love cats. I don’t have a problem with cats. I don’t have a problem with people who love cats. I have a problem with people who seem to think like cats.
Specifically, people who have to find a place where they can look down on others. My sisters testify that their cats seem to go for those places where they are a little above the rest of the surroundings so they can look down. If the room has absolutely nothing in it except a piece of paper they will claim the paper as their spot for the sake of the hair breadth elevation it provides. If you have cats you know what I’m talking about.
As humans we tend to do that too. We may be in the most oppressed and despised social class in general but we will find someone else to look down upon. ”At least I’m not like ____” I have lived among colonizers and the colonized, among European Americans, African Americans and Latin Americans, city and country folk, straights and gays, religious fundamentalists and progressives. We all do it. And yes, the we they, you and I.
It seems we have an easier time identifying who we are not than who we are. I want to be someone who looks at all people as equally valued and loved. Therefore, I resolve to not look down on any other persons.
Except maybe cat people.
Oops!
It isn’t as easy at it sounds, but I want to keep trying. It’s a big part of my vision of faith.