Crazy Cat Lady in Training

So I was sitting around pondering life (a.k.a. ignoring my deadlines), and it struck me that I am probably going to die alone and surrounded by 20 scraggly cats. It’s okay; I’ve made my peace with it. At least I can start stocking up on canned cat food early.

Because here’s the thing. You people out there in the “real” world? You scare the hell out of me. Every year that passes only reinforces my reluctance to participate in “real” life. Have you seen the wars out there? The violence and hatred? The absolute and blatant hypocrisy of our governments and religions? Even on a smaller scale, the way we speak to each other and treat each other and judge each other is downright terrifying. What the hell is it all for?

Say you have an opinion. Let’s make it an easy one. Okay, you believe to the depths of your soul that the color pink is an abomination against all that is good in the world. There are arguments to support this belief, and all of it proves beyond doubt that pink as a color is wrong. Yay. You win. Pink is evil.

What does this accomplish, though? First off, anyone who likes pink now has to either hide their pink-appreciation or choose to pink it up anyway, knowing that everyone they meet – every person they encounter – will be silently judging their pinkness. So tensions escalate (as they so often do), and next thing you know, there is a pink-lovin’ faction that breaks off and tells the non-pinks that THEY are the heathens. So the non-pinks declare war on the pro-pinks – strictly for their own good, of course, misguided souls that they are. Now we have non’s and pro’s all fighting each other, and then someone finds a gun, and then another person revs up a few tanks and helicopters, and then the next thing you know, we’re killing each other over pink.

Maybe the pro-pinks win. Maybe the non-pinks win. Either way, one ideology will emerge victorious. People have died. Families have fractured. Lives have been torn apart. Over pink.

What has all this really accomplished? Not a damn thing. Because pink was never really an issue. Pink won’t keep us from achieving new advances in medicine. Pink won’t influence how our children learn and grow. Pink won’t prevent us from living, working, loving, praying, or eating. What has brought those restrictions and that suffering to people’s lives isn’t a color – it’s the prejudices that our society has built up around that color.

Religion. Sexuality. Gender. Class. Profession. Race. Size. Shape.

Hating and killing and tormenting each other over these things make just as much sense as having a war over the color of Pepto Bismol.

Don’t quote the Bible at me, either. Jesus said the MOST IMPORTANT thing was to love one another. He didn’t say it was something to consider when taking a break from Leviticus (which apparently never gets read unless someone wants to impose their prejudices and they need an excuse). He said it was the most important thing. Not maybe. So really, don’t call yourself a Christian and then ignore that. That’s like putting an anti-pink flag on the front of your Barbie Dream House.

Year after year, we kill each other over religion, over politics, over money… over the stupidest, most inconsequential labels. Why? It’s madness.

You know when poverty and homelessness and famine and war and disease are going to end? Never. Because the only way for us to conquer those things is by coming together as a species. As a planet. But we’ll never come together because we’re all so damned determined to prove that we’re right and the other guy is wrong. We’ve got to prove that our beliefs – our millions of opinions – are more important than one person’s right to live free and happy. We will let a rapist go free so that our football team won’t lose the big game. We will let people kill a man for holding hands with his boyfriend in public. We will let a Muslim family wake up to hate speech graffitied on their home. We condone acts of hatred and violence through our silence, and instead make noise that can only bring MORE hatred. More violence. Because we don’t really care about making the world a better place. We only care about being right.

I want the people of the world to stop arguing about pink. Until it does, I’ll be living like a hermit with my cats, who don’t give a damn about anything beyond having food and a nice warm spot in which to nap.