I walked passed a cat. I never really liked them. For no apparent reason. I tried to think of a good reason. Have I made a bad memory? Nope, didn’t happen. Am I allergic? Not that I know of. Maybe I was scared, I couldn’t argue why though. I just had this antipathy towards cats.
So I walked passed the cat. I took the time to observe her while passing. She looked back, friendly and trustingly. I was thinking why wouldn’t I like a creature just like this, without any good reason. Seeing her I realized my antipathy towards cats is just a fact of pure ignorance. I don’t know much about cats, I never wanted to learn anything about them. It is not only about cats but with other animals I am also not really into them. I never had an emotional connection with any pet. All I have is prejudice, a self drawn picture of how I imagine cats to be. My antipathy towards cats has in fact changed towards a more positive picture in the past couple years. I had more contact with cats, especially kittens. Friends have cats and I could see them bonding. Only when I begun to be more open minded I was able to see beyond my own picture.
This has shown me how simple it is to have a wrong image just by being ignorant towards unknown things. It is in the moment we lose all prejudice that we can really connect and see a beyond ourselves.
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