THE CHALLENGER

     For three days and nights Sylvie sits on this new scratcher pad. She comes and goes, of course, but, inexplicably, she would park herself for long periods of time on that rough, dusty, pad, as if it was the most comfortable place in the house.
     I noticed it before: the cats choose to lie down their fluffiness on some astonishingly uncomfortable, at least, from a human point of view, perch. That includes lying on plastic bags (right next to a soft, natural fiber blanket), on a bunch of wires, resting their heads on the extension plugs. Cardboard boxes and paper bags are like thrones to the felines: they'd refuse to leave them for whole days at a time.
     What does that remind me? Are they learning to be so possessive and territorial from us, or we never un-learned it from he days when we ran around the jungle, striving to achieve dominance over other animals? 
     Sonny and I often spend hours, debating some issue. In a way, I come from a very conservative background, and Sonny, well, I taught him to challenge accepted norms and concepts (otherwise, how could he understand, why our lifestyle was so different from much of the world?). 
     Even so, I find myself fighting for my every word, because my young son-person tends to accompany his point of view by phrases like: "Wh-y-y do you believe that? I read that..." or "In my Social Psychology class I heard..."
     As the result, a lot of my, seemingly, immovable concepts tend to spatter and fiz away, leaving a place in my mind now ready to be filled with more modern ideas. 
     What prompted me to go into all this? I guess, we are different from animals, who are afraid to leave their perch in the world, because we can be flexible in our opinions; that's why, we survived, while having no sharp claws and and teeth and beaks. Humans adapt and change, ensuring the survival of our species.

     
 My young son-person, I am grateful to you for making me relevant to our times! Thank you and - keep on challenging the authoritative attitudes, making the world a little bit more suitable for my grandchildren!