Each of us is a precious gem

Here’s something we never thought about before, not that there aren’t a number of such things. It’s what we do most of the day, when we aren’t playing, grooming, eating or writing:  We mediate on the mysteries of the universe and the puzzling things we see outside our windows.

Trouble doing what a cat does best — meditating on the nature of the universe.

Really. It just looks like we’re napping.

But we were thinking recently about Thailand, the home of our ancestors. While browsing the Internet – we periodically google “Siamese cat news” to see what turns up — we came across a story about a new campaign to promote Thai tourism. And it features a cat that looks like us! Handsome face, lithe body, big blue eyes. It’s us!

Brilliant!

But if you clicked, you probably noticed that the writer doesn’t refer to that gorgeous feline representative of Thai culture as a Siamese cat. It’s something called a Wichian Mat. Which we found out means “moon diamond.”
 
Wow. We’re not only gorgeous, we’re poetry. Picture the warm gold and bronze of a harvest moon and the clear blue-white fire of a diamond. Then look at the subtle shades of our soft cream, mocha, tan and brown coats. Look into our sparkling opalescent blue eyes. It’s us.

Mischief shows off his gorgeous blue eyes.

So that’s when it hit us. All cats in Thailand are Thai cats, just as all cats in old Siam were Siamese cats. But not all Siamese cats were of the Wichian Mat breed. (Or, as we’ve also seen it spelled, wichien maat.)

Despite all the fuss over what constitutes a “real” Siamese cat in the rest of the world, if you go to Thailand, you still can see the real deal, the wichian mat, plus all sorts of other cats. We think that settles the argument once and for all.

It makes us wonder what else we’re making gigantic assumptions about. As we can attest just from watching our patio, the world is full of birds, for example. In our case, they’re American birds. But look closer, and you see robins, cardinals, several kinds of finches and sparrows, wrens, blue jays, doves (and we’ve heard tell of an awful, scary story about a dove and a hawk out there we won’t repeat. Thank goodness we weren’t there to see it, is all we will say.)

Some of these birds are native to North America. Some, like the sparrows and starlings, came from Europe. But each is special and distinct. If there were one less color, shape or song, our world would be poorer.

The world is full of diversity, and we miss out on its richness if we only think in broad categories and lump things together as being alike when that’s just not so. Look closer, and you’ll see each of us is a unique gem, bringing beauty to the place we grace with our presence.

Moon diamonds. Rare, exotic, mysterious, precious.