Returning to Cats and Ourselves
While spending time at a bookstore this weekend, I came across a cat planner. On the back cover, it read: "Cats never come to their senses, because they have never left them. Because a cat is only itself. Nothing else... If you are outside of life, you cannot be inside a cat. That is why cats do not consume themselves; that is the trait of a human."
This quote really caught my interest and set me thinking. Why can't we come to our senses? Why can't we just be ourselves? In fact, why do we run away from ourselves every chance we get? Ever since I came to Istanbul, one of the things that has caught my attention the most is how cats are just part of the natural flow of life, never looked at with suspicion, and never running away from people—quite the opposite, they approach people on their own. You can see a cat anywhere, at any moment: sometimes on top of a car, sometimes on a chair in a café, sometimes on a bench at a bus stop, sometimes on a ferry, or inside a mosque. And all around, you can see plenty of cat houses and bowls of cat food placed along the sidewalks.
The other day, I saw a dead mouse on the pavement, and when I passed by the next day, it was still lying there. I thought, there are no Toms left chasing mice anymore; they’ve all turned into Garfield's, getting food and water served on a silver platter just living life—why would they bother hunting mice? :D I started wondering if we are disrupting the food chain somewhere. I wondered if cats, too, can no longer be their true selves. Could we have disconnected cats from their life purpose? Questions were racing through my mind.
Who disconnected us from our life purpose? It’s as if something happened, and nothing was ever the same again. Is this what they call growing up? I don't know; I used to think that by the time I was 33-34, I would have everything figured out and most things settled into place, yet I still fall into the same old illusions, and I am still struggling with the same things. Perhaps I haven't quite mastered the art of coming to my senses.
As humans, one of our greatest talents is truly consuming ourselves from the inside out. We still want everything to happen instantly and exactly the way we want it. Our ability to focus on the hidden good in what doesn't happen is completely gone now. We want a superpower to just show up and fix everything; we have zero tolerance for waiting.
Another thing we excel at is eating ourselves up inside. Honestly, we no longer trust God, or perhaps our relationship with God. Nowadays, all human focus revolves around pleasure. We are always chasing after things for ourselves; whatever anyone else is experiencing, whatever agony they are going through, we no longer care. Humanity has been reduced to just a few emotions, and everything is explained away through neurotransmitters. We used to have soul-searching inner distress, but now we have zero tolerance for the slightest bit of boredom, instantly finding something to numb ourselves with. Are you bored? Watch a few funny reels, go shopping, binge-watch a couple of seasons of a show—and just like that, the feeling is gone.
I don't know about you, but this trajectory boggles my mind and saddens me; I want to experience real emotions. I want friendship, sincerity, helpfulness, and good intentions to make a comeback. Let’s finally drop the masks. Let’s stop performing for screens. Let’s return to poetry, return home, return to our hearts, and most of all, return to Allah.