Shouting match

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The other day I witnessed a shouting match of two gentlemen. They are neighbors, yet the fact that each of them was staying at their own side of the fence didn’t stop them from voicing their unhappiness about each other loudly.
And as soon as one of them backed off just a little bit, the other one turned around and continued the ‘peeing-contest’ in the most literal sense.
Then, after one more look at each other, they both walked away from the fence, all fluffed up, but otherwise as if nothing had happened.

It is what cats do.

The six-foot-fence has been there as long as I can remember. As a boundary it is totally clear, and as such not even contested. But as soon as the neighboring cats see each other, they will fluff up and become larger than life. They will glare at each other, and snarl and howl… Then they will just turn away from their shouting match, check the fence, mark their territory, and move on with life as if nothing happened.

Of course cats are not the only species getting involved in ‘shouting matches’ like this. Pretty much any species involves itself in displays of power and dominance. From one perspective it is to protect territory, from another it is about ‘pecking order’ and leadership.
It makes clear who has the right to what…

And as much as we consider ourselves above this behavior, us humans are not exempt from it. Although we pride ourselves in handling it in a more civilized manner.
We just go for the bigger home, the faster car, the greatest party and the best barbecue. And on and on… And while this may not be as noisy as the actual shouting match I witnessed between cats, it still gets the point across loud and clear: ‘I am better and bigger than you”.
It can indeed become a somewhat heated ‘discussion’ that might be going on between neighbors or even co-workers who are aiming for that place on the top.

But where cats walk away from it as if nothing just happened, we tend to hold on to those ‘shouting matches’ for a long time. Trying to best the other person every step of the way. Holding grudges about how the other person may have that bigger car and so on. Rather than shaking off the encounter ~ like cats do more often than not ~ we start carrying the burden of stress, and as a result cheat ourselves out of the relaxed, comfortable lifestyle we were after all along.

Perhaps we still have a lot to learn from our cats…
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