A different faith
A neighbour of ours who is becoming a very good friend kind of came out to me on Thursday as a devout Roman Catholic, and decidedly non-judgemental. It serves as a timely reminder of the foolishness of judging people en masse, be they religious, gay, male, female… Whatever. I told her a little of my pagan beliefs, and she was genuinely interested and enthusiastic. I think it matters to her that we’re a spiritual household, not what spirituality we hold to. And that’s very nice to find in a person of a different faith to one’s own. She’s also kindly agreed to look after our hens while we’re away at a pagan festival this weekend. She apparently loves hens and wanted to keep some, but her husband didn’t, so it didn’t happen!
tags: beliefs, faith, Paganism, religion, Roman Catholicism, spiritualityMirror, mirror on the wall, which animals are the cleverest of all?
Sometimes the scientific community, requiring as it does laboratory evidence for most things before declaring them ‘real’, seems way behind when it comes to recognising what goes on in the real world. The latest news is that magpies have joined humans, apes, elephants and dolphins as animals officially declared capable of recognising their own reflections in mirrors, and knowing them for what they are. But I am surely not the only cat owner in the world who has identified through real experience that while the majority of cats show no interest in mirrors, some do—and, by observing them observing themselves, we are capable of discerning, with absolute certainty, that some cats most definitely recognise their own reflections for what they are.
tags: animal intelligence, apes, birds, cats, dolphins, elephants, experience, faith, humans, laboratories, magpies, mirrors, religion, science, self-awareness
