What TO do is always more powerful than what not to do.
Cats teach us this. Cats will do what is in their interests to do. If you present what TO do, and a treat, they will ALWAYS do it.
A relevant problem is perhaps domestication.
When man was domesticated (as in hunting in the supermarket aisle rather than using up competititve and violent energy hunting down a meal), he failed to adapt and find a way to re-channel those hunting energies that would be normal for our design as humans.
Cats seem to have done it better. They too are domesticated and no longer hunt, but they have not resorted to violence as a result. What is their secret?
Human domestication is quite recent, my dad and grandparents still hunted for food, at least on some days of the week. But they had one other overwhelming principle to live by -
Everyone mattered. If someone needed help, everyone else rallied.
That to me is the number one "DO THIS" command.
It is mostly missing from our "society" today. Yet cats follow that rule in domestication. Two of mine have alerted me to heart attacks. Yesterday Gyda reminded me I forgot to take potassium (my heart quits without it). A cat in UK caught her first ever prey at age 16, in order to present it to her friend, a very old and dying dog, to try to help him. I could write reams of examples. The point is that this positive social behavior is normal for cats after domestication. Yet they retain their individuality as well, and do their own thing. A perfect combination?
Mark Twain said:
"If man were crossed with a cat, it would improve man but deteriorate the cat."
We should be ashamed; we have such excellent examples of how to do better!
My "thou shalt not" would be greed.
Namaste,
Irene
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Irene de Villiers, B.Sc AASCA MCSSA D.I.Hom/D.Vet.Hom.
P.O. Box 4703 Spokane WA 99220.
www.angelfire.com/fl/furryboots/clickhere.html (Veterinary Homeopath.)
"Man who say it cannot be done should not interrupt one doing it."