Aristocracy of Fear
Posted At: Thursday, October 23, 2008 11:30 PM | Posted By: Jon Katz
The Bedlam Farm Canine Crew, now used to posing, on the command “photoshoot.”
October 23, 2008 – E.M. Forster wrote that he believes in a particular kind of aristocracy, the aristocracy of the sensitive, the considerate and the plucky. There is, he wrote, a secret understanding among them. The represent the true human tradition, the one permanent victory of our queer race over cruelty and chaos. They can take a joke.
I think there is also an aristocracy of fear, a community of people who experience fear, and seek ways to overcome it. They are seekers, comforters, curious people. They are often in great pain and distress, and they are almost uniformly open to spiritual and other comforts and remedies. They are restless people, I think, worriers, respectful of their fear and certain it will return from time to time, as it has a habit of doing. Fear can take your breath away, lay you low, and people who know fear also often know ways to hide it, avoid it, or simply live through it. I think they are a particular kind of aristocracy, in that they recognize one another, and celebrate one another’s daily triumph over life in a sometimes confusing and uncertain world.
Change: We both are and are not
Posted At: Thursday, October 23, 2008 6:35 PM | Posted By: Jon Katz
Winston in the barn, where he stays all day now, near the heat lamp
”As long as we are in this life, we both are and are not. We are constantly changing. And yet the person who changes is always the same person. Even his changes express his personality, and develop it, and confirm him for what he is.”
— Thomas Merton
The webs we weave
Posted At: Thursday, October 23, 2008 12:20 PM | Posted By: Jon Katz
In the big barn.
Lulu, watching me in the barn
Posted At: Thursday, October 23, 2008 12:18 PM | Posted By: Jon Katz
Mother love
Posted At: Thursday, October 23, 2008 12:17 PM | Posted By: Jon Katz
October 23, 2008 - Mother was waiting for me this morning when I went into the big barn to take photos. She and Minnie love to vamp for the camera.
I’m getting a lot of mail urging me to let Mother and Minnie into the house this winter. I don’t believe they want to come in. I think we think they want the same things we want, but barn cats have work to do at night, and it is natural to them, I believe. Mother and Minnie get fed each day and lots of affection. They get shots and worming pills.
I think they ought to live the lives that barn cats live. I don’t really claim to know what they want, but they are living lives of barn cats to the fullest, and that involves a certain amount of risk. I notice when I open the door to them, they come in and immediately want to come out. On bitter cold nights, I prepare a litter and bed for them in the basement, but so far, they don’t want to come in there either.
There are heat lamps for them out in the barn, and they make beds out of hay. I think barn cats are a proud and wild species But if I sense they are uncomfortable or in real danger – they seem very savvy to me - I will rethink it. They have a lot of advocates, which is nice, and it is an interesting conversation.
