Fourth Form of Madness

I know life is all about learning but sometimes it all can be a bit too much. Take today. I spent the day with Descartes, in particular, his new theory of ideas and the union of mind and body. Eight hours of that mumbo jumbo and I quite clearly had lost my mind (which actually solved the problem of body mind union quite nicely). In a delusional state of philosophy overload I decided to take my beloved doggie for a walk to try and clear both our minds and rejuvenate both our bodies and souls.

Luckily the cat decided to come with us and when that lady gets something into her mind, nothing has the power to stop her. After several attempts at trying to trick her into the house, I decided that my “crazy eccentric cat lady” image didn’t need any further promoting in our neighbourhood and begrudging let her trail behind us. She thanked me with loud exaggerated meows that were just in the right pitch to potentially shatter my ear drum and to alert everyone to make way for the crazy lady walking her cat.

Nature has a way of levelling things out, making things right according to her own terms. I think some people refer to this as karma. Well we had only set one foot (or paw) in the park around the corner from us, when karma swooped down upon puss, literally. A tornado of little grey birds circled above her head, with the occasional trained kamikaze breaking out of formation to drive bomb her head. In perfect synchronicity, the neighbourhood St Bernard came slumbering around the corner and spied lunch in the form of puss. I love the lady that walks that St Bernard, she is friendly, always picks up the extensive poop that her pouch produces and never fails to keep a watchful eye out for puss if her Bernard is off the lease…….that is until today. All of a sudden I was well aware of a big lumbering ball of fur and drool breaking the sound barrier making its way towards it’s object of it’s desire. For those that think that animals don’t have mind (the capacity of intellect), they should think again. I literally saw puss weigh up her options, slow painful death of being pecked to bits by the grey messengers of god or sure sudden death in the jaws of the slobbering poochie. Puss chose neither, puss chose life instead and literally did a back flip that Nadia Comaneci couldn’t have nailed, whereby shaking the birds and then legged it at a speed I have never seen her move at to the security of a tree. Meanwhile, my beloved dog gave me a look that only could be read as “who’s walk is this anyway?”

Back in the seclusion of my bedroom, once again flicking through the various literature on Descartes take on mind (immaterial) and body (material). I no longer cared if I couldn’t intellectize my way to seeing how the immaterial (mind) could possibly be in union with and interact with the material (body). Didn’t need to, I had just experienced the collusion of the two to produce action that efficiently and affectively secured the wellbeing of puss. The puss that was now settled comfortably beside me licking her paws and acting like nothing had ever happened.