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In his book “Feline Philosophy. Cats and the Meaning of Life” the well-known British thinker and philosopher John Gray discovers in cats a way of living that is free from anxiety and self-consciousness and describes how they provide the answers to such big questions as those of mortality, morality and happiness. Since this is the time when humans habitually, by default, wish each other and themselves happiness I found provocative and illuminating his observations regarding happiness in the chapter entitled “Why Cats Do Not Struggle to Be Happy” to which I subscribe since I can witness daily the living proof of the correctness of his observations. I thought you might find them interesting, too. Here is an excerpt from this chapter:
“When people say their goal in life is to be happy they are telling you they are miserable. Thinking of happiness as a project, they look for fulfillment at some future time. The present slips by, and anxiety creeps in. They dread their progress to this future state being disrupted by events. So they turn to philosophy, and nowadays therapy, which offer relief from their unease.
Posing as a cure, philosophy is a symptom of the disorder it pretends to remedy. Other animals do not need to divert themselves from their condition. Whereas happiness in humans is an artificial state, for cats it is their natural condition. Unless they are confined within environments that are unnatural for them, cats are never bored. Boredom is fear of being alone with yourself. Cats are happy being themselves, while humans try to be happy by escaping themselves…”
Gold Dust
OUR ORWELLIAN CANADA 