It is only natural for us to sometimes wonder why we are the way we are. Nature or nurture? Were we born this way as Lady Gaga likes to sing or did our Moms and Pops shape our personalities?
I have recently concluded some very in-depth research into this question, using, as the subjects of my study, the ever-willing Hagarty cats. My conclusion which arose from my examination of these two little buggers convinces me that nature plays the biggest part.
Mario and Luigi, though brothers born to the same litter, couldn’t be more different if one was a cat and the other a kangaroo. As previously reported, Mario is an unrepentant stalker and slayer of various backyard wildlife while, as far as we know, Luigi has never killed anything in his life if you don’t count upholstery and carpet.
Mario is skittish and insecure. Luigi is as relaxed and calm as a Michael Buble song.
However, there is no doubt Luigi is the boss of the house as even the dog defers to him. I have boxing matches with Mario and he never brings out the claws. To try the same with Luigi would result in pain and stitches and big tears of sadness running down my face. But cats of all stripes have one big advantage over humans – they never get down on themselves!
Mario licks plastic. Luigi never does. Mario is a chewer of paper. Not his brother. Luigi spends the Christmas season under the tree. “Tree?” says Mario. “What tree?”
Luigi drinks from the toilet. Mario is more upper class. Luigi is fascinated with ribbons. Mario eats flies.
Our kitty bros are six years old. We got them at the OSPCA as kittens. They are so close, it took them about a year until they realized they were two cats, and not one. Often, we would see them sleeping together – legs, paws, ears, tails all sticking out, it was hard to see where one cat ended and the other began. They looked like one big pile of cat.
Whenever they see each other after not being together for an hour or so, they touch noses. If one can’t find the other, he’ll go on a big search to find the lost brother, looking everywhere, and finally coming to one of us. But they have different skill sets. Mario can let himself out the screen door into the backyard but can’t get back in. Luigi can’t get out but he can let himself in. They haven’t learned how to work together very well yet.
So, to translate my findings into useful tips for parents raising humans, I offer this. Your kids are all different. Learn who and what they are and let them be that. Don’t try turning a bookworm into a hockey star, a “tomboy” into a fairy princess.
You can go with their flow or someday watch them flow away from your shore.
That are what they are and will be what they will be.
This message was approved by Luigi the Toilet Water Drinker.
©2011 Jim Hagarty
[the_ad_placement id=”top-of-page”]
