Saturday, July 08, 2006

Catty Catnip: Achieving enlightenment or stuck on stupid?

Whenever I discover a new blog I like to go back to the first few posts and read them. Bloggers often introduce themselves with a little biography in their first post and sometimes in the next few they will reveal further facts about their personal perspectives, their life history and so on. When I first found the Catty Catnip, I followed my usual strategy of reading the early entries, plus I have been reading her blog off and on now for more than a month. Although I find her style and the lack of substance rather tiresome and boring, as a specimen of modern day whacky leftism, her blog is an interesting study. In fact, having been a leftist a long time ago, I have even found myself in agreement with her once or twice and I think we have some common roots.

Very early in her blogging career, she revealed that nearly twenty years ago she gave up a dependence on an addictive prescription drug that was often used for treatment of stress and depression. Of course, I can only admire her strength in overcoming this affliction and her courage in making that very personal information public by posting it on a blog. I hope she realizes it's out there now for all to see.

Her revelation of such personal information did allow me to connect a few more of the dots in my ongoing study of her as a personality. Twenty years ago I was just coming out of a serious depression myself, having separated from my husband. Having married a way too young and for all the wrong reasons, I had to face life on my own for the very first time and deal with some very real issues in my own personality. To put it succinctly, in my mid-thirties I had to finally grow up and learn to handle life on my own. It was a rough ride, but it was well worth it.

I had hopped on the 60s radicalism bandwagon and like many others who did the same, I went through a period of disillusionment and ennui in the mid-seventies, about the same time the Viet Nam war came to an end and the feminist movement was running into trouble. Like so many of my generation, during the late 70's and early 80's, I endured a period of soul searching and spiritual hunger - and emotionally wrenching experiences I doubt I will ever have to go through again.

Some of my generation got further and further into the drug scene and became full-blown addicts, subsequently having varying degrees of success in controlling their habit. Catty Catnip appears to have been more successful than some of these poor souls, although it's hard to understand how she managed.

Others - following another track then very much in vogue - began exploring the religions found in India and the Far East. Even the Beatles, THE pre-eminent rock group of our era, had followed that journey and pale skinned followers (ie. not Indian) of Hari Krishna, in their flowing robes, were to be seen on the streets of even the small Canadian prairie city of Saskatoon, where I lived at that time. Still others returned with utter abandon to the faith of their ancestors, taking Christianity to an extreme even their parents would not have recognized. Thus, the 1970s boom in born-again sects of Christianity and a proliferation of new holy-roller churches unheard of prior to that era.

Somewhere during those times, I stopped calling myself an avowed atheist and began to understand that atheists, even if they claim not to believe in any god, do have a idea of what the Judeao-Christian God is, against which they rail, but refuse to contemplate that there may be other conceptualizations. They have one concept. They reject it. Therefore there is no God. Like them, I had no acceptable concept and, although I wanted to, I could not find one. I had to come to terms with the fact that whatever God might be, He/She/It will forever be a mystery to me and that's okay. I kind of like it that way and I now laugh at atheists on soapboxes, as they presume, beyond all doubt, to know the unknowable, to have clinched, unlike anyone else, the ultimate truth, thereby revealing their silliness.

It also took me a long time to admit to no longer having a socialistic outlook on the world. At the end of it, I had to accept that I had changed my politics. I was now completely estranged from the old guard of the 60s and was gradually losing my discomfort when in the company of those at the other end of the spectrum. Although I do think our generation's heart was in the right place, I now look at many of the ideas that prevailed during the 60s as silly and childish. We just didn't understand that the world is not and never will be Nirvana and, as a consequence, I now look upon some of our then strident beliefs as pure, unadulterated narrow-minded bigotry.

I suspect the Catty Catnip and I have a few things in common, then. For example, she has talked about her grandchildren, and although I don't have grandchildren, I am certainly old enough to have several running around. I suspect, therefore, that Catty Catnip and I are roughly the same age. She has revealed she is a Buddhist, and I presume (perhaps incorrectly, I freely admit) that she was not born into that religion, but like many others during the '70s and 80's she was led to it during the great and tumultuous reality-facing "come down" that followed the high produced by the radicalism of the 1960s.

But while I have mellowed considerably since then, Catnip, on the other hand, has not. What Catnip reveals about her personality, through the topics she chooses to write about and, most especially, through the manner in which she develops her ideas, is a baby boomer of advancing age, who has yet to grow up. She hasn't the capacity to critically evaluate any of the subjects she entertains. She lacks the skill of developing a case in support of her position. She utterly fails to do anything but repeat, ad nauseam, the talking points first uttered so long ago by the leaders of the 60s radicalism. In short, despite her age, and the era through which she has lived, somewhere way back when, she simply stopped growing. Alas, she is stuck on stupid, still a catty teenager in her approach to life’s heavy issues and deep philosophical questions.

How ironic, then, that on Thursday of this past week she pays homage to the Dalai Lama, praising him thus: “His astounding capacity for humilty (sic) and compassion reminds all of us that we too can attain such an enlightened state, even in the midst of great turmoil.”

So, Catty. When will your journey to enlightenment actually begin? Enlightenment requires spiritual growth and arises most fully from having successfully dealt with life's many pains. If you are seeking enlightenment, I surely hope you believe in reincarnation, 'cause I don't think you're going to make it in this go round.

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4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Fortunately, most people don't this Catnip seriously. It is clear to most people what a nut she is. I almost pitty her.

July 13, 2006 5:12 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Beware of "pity" from people who can't spell the word.

July 14, 2006 12:42 pm  
Blogger Sol Ta Triane said...

Louise and hosdil,
I "pitty" the "catty" and the spell checkker guy too. Hope they can find the meaning of Buddhism someday.

July 20, 2006 8:08 pm  
Blogger Mike H. said...

Beware of "pity" from people who can only spell words.

July 29, 2006 1:21 pm  

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