I have a new coffee maker--a Cuisinart Automatic Grind and Brew. At night, I fill the thing up with beans and water, set the timer, and magically the coffee appears at 6:40 the next morning, hot and fresh. An entire night's sleep has gone by since I set it up, which is enough time for me to forget what I have done, so it's as if I had a coffee fairy in my kitchen.
But this isn't about coffee. It's about fear. My cat Mike is afraid of most things but mostly men. If he hears a man's voice, he hides. If he hears heavy shoes on the floor that might be man shoes, he hides. If he hears loud boisterous laughter that might be from a man, he hides. If he hears anything unusual coming from a room, even a room he enjoys like the kitchen as it contains his food, he hides.
My cat Mike also loves food, which is why he is a twenty-pound kitty. He doesn't seem to be governed by appetite control but seems to thinks that if I am in the kitchen it must be time to eat. When I wake in the morning and walk into the kitchen for breakfast, he races in ahead of me and waits for me to fill his bowl. But now that I have an Automatic Grind and Brew coffee maker, with a very loud growling, grinding mechanism, he doesn't race so much. He hides, sitting on the steps just around the corner.
At 6:25, when the timer goes off and the grinder cranks up, you can hear it all the way into the farthest corner of the upper level of the house. It's a little scary even for a human, so for poor Mike, this foreign sound is enough to keep him from his favorite thing in life, the thing that gives him joy and satisfaction--food.
When I first saw Mike's reaction to the coffee grinding, I thought, "what a stupid idiot," but people are no different. The growling, grinding thing around the corner makes us want to hide on the steps, too--afraid to look around the corner in case there is an ensnaring threat--but maybe that growling, grinding thing isn't a threat at all. Maybe it's a gift, an opportunity, a thing that will give joy and satisfaction.
It looks and sounds like a threat because it's unfamiliar, but underneath all the noise and the scariness, the potential for danger, there is something delectable brewing, something waiting to be poured into your cup and to provide joy and satisfaction. If you sit on the steps, just around the corner, just out of reach of what waits for you, you'll miss out on the whole thing. And all because of a little noise.
But this isn't about coffee. It's about fear. My cat Mike is afraid of most things but mostly men. If he hears a man's voice, he hides. If he hears heavy shoes on the floor that might be man shoes, he hides. If he hears loud boisterous laughter that might be from a man, he hides. If he hears anything unusual coming from a room, even a room he enjoys like the kitchen as it contains his food, he hides.
My cat Mike also loves food, which is why he is a twenty-pound kitty. He doesn't seem to be governed by appetite control but seems to thinks that if I am in the kitchen it must be time to eat. When I wake in the morning and walk into the kitchen for breakfast, he races in ahead of me and waits for me to fill his bowl. But now that I have an Automatic Grind and Brew coffee maker, with a very loud growling, grinding mechanism, he doesn't race so much. He hides, sitting on the steps just around the corner.
At 6:25, when the timer goes off and the grinder cranks up, you can hear it all the way into the farthest corner of the upper level of the house. It's a little scary even for a human, so for poor Mike, this foreign sound is enough to keep him from his favorite thing in life, the thing that gives him joy and satisfaction--food.
When I first saw Mike's reaction to the coffee grinding, I thought, "what a stupid idiot," but people are no different. The growling, grinding thing around the corner makes us want to hide on the steps, too--afraid to look around the corner in case there is an ensnaring threat--but maybe that growling, grinding thing isn't a threat at all. Maybe it's a gift, an opportunity, a thing that will give joy and satisfaction.
It looks and sounds like a threat because it's unfamiliar, but underneath all the noise and the scariness, the potential for danger, there is something delectable brewing, something waiting to be poured into your cup and to provide joy and satisfaction. If you sit on the steps, just around the corner, just out of reach of what waits for you, you'll miss out on the whole thing. And all because of a little noise.
Comments
Lynn, it only lasts for about 30 seconds. My mother once said, while I was in labor," you can stand anything as long as you know there is an end to it".
You'll have to ease his hurt feelings by buying him a catfood dispenser that makes a comforting purring noise.
Well 3 mins is a relief, but applying that philosophy to labour? It puts me in mind of the maternity nurse, whom i asked beforehand how painful it would be:
"Uncomfortable." was the ridiculous reply.
You hold her, Dear Prudence, I'll hit her.
But my feelings are entirely with Mike I'm afraid. My oldest cat, Pretty Kittypuss Cat, hates the noise of the vacuum cleaner (so do I) and all of the cats disappear when M.B uses the blowervac or the lawnmower or chainsaw or I use the girls' version of the whippersnipper (we live in the country).
I am very sensitive to noise - TV, radio especially, and all things electrical but I think the thing I hate the most is the sound of an electric masonry drill or an angle grinder!
As for PAIN - I am recovering from the most horrible migraine - throwing up, shivering, dehydrating, pounding in the head and sensitive to the slightest light, sound or smell - M.B gave me 2 injections and then the doc gave me another one at the hospital and now, in the middle of the night, I'm finally ok after a fearsome 18 hours. Sascha, my burmese cat didn't leave my side the entire time and all of the cats had to wait to get fed. I'm a little worried that M.B won't look after them properly when I'm away next week! I'll have to hop on-line to remind him! (Actually, Lynn or Robyn or Dear P or even Dive, perhaps you could ask him if he has fed the cats (Kittypuss, Felix, Sascha, Lillipilli and Tiger Jim, yet?) I leave on Friday and come home the following Friday - going to Sydney and then to the Sunshine Coast in Qld where my mother lives - for mother's birthday.
Prudence, thank you for using the word "metaphor." It's not about the coffee maker at all.
Sassy, I like the French press do, but first thing in the morning, the idea of waking to the smell of brewed coffee, ready and waiting for me, is so delightful.
Dive, Mike is such a neuoritic mess, I'm afraid he'd be afraid the noise-making food bowl too. Even when the kitty water cooler gurgles, he leaps at it.
Mme Benaut, I am sorry hear about your migraine. I have never had one, but I sympathize just the same. We'll see your cats are fed. I used to have a third kitty, but he was a diabetic and very difficult to care for, and he was miserable. so off he went.
I guess I may die at the hands of a jealous husband. :))
But I still need to rehearse...
I am sure the rest of my family is glad I don't drink coffee! We are all light sleepers here, and something like that sounds like it would wake us up!