Three
Results of Negotiations Between Three Latent Kitten Elders and Members of our Field Team by Lily S. May (c)2010
I have some very positive news
to report to you today about the negotiations
between Sam Fieldstone, the philosophy student I told you about yesterday,
and three latent kitten elders.
The four met last night for several hours
at an undisclosed location.
According to Sam, the discussions were cordial,
if not out and out friendly.
The latent kittens expressed to him
how heartened they are
that our experiential course is underway
and showed a willingness,
nay,
an out and out desire
to meet with members of our field team.
(A brief aside is in order
about latent kittens' methods
of communication.
Though we humans pride ourselves on our intelligence,
we have never unlocked the mystery
of how latent kittens communicate
across species.
We just know that they possess that remarkable ability,
an ability that has been greatly misunderstood, feared and, yes,
even hated
during periods of our history.
As is always the case,
Sam was unable to report to me how the meeting went
in terms of exact words,
since we know that latent kittens do not speak in an actual language
known to humanity anywhere on the globe.
Yet somehow their utterances are made known to us,
regardless of the particular language we speak.)
The elders have, accordingly, set forth certain conditions
that they need our team to comply with
for their safety.
Sam assured them of our team's readiness
to meet all their conditions
as these came within the anticipated scope of measures
the team had planned for.
The conditions are:
1. that the meeting be held in private
2. that the place and time shall be chosen by the latent kittens
and announced on the day of the meeting to Sam
and
3. that the team remains on a sort of standby until then,
ready to meet within an hour's notice.
As you can appreciate,
all this secrecy is necessary
to ensure that the latent kittens are safe
and that no inadvertent slip of the tongue
gives away the details.
For though we are engaged in efforts
on their behalf,
there are still those in the general populace
who might view latent kittens as a threat
and try to undermine our efforts.
In addition, though the government and police
are sympathetic to our work,
so far,
we must be aware
that they may fall back into an old mindset
which could produce incalculable harm.
Once the aforementioned meeting takes place,
the latent kittens have given their permission
for our team to report back to us
and we await that report
with much interest.
Our Team's Report of their Meeting with Latent Kittens:
Our local team contacted me late last night
with the news that they had just had a four hour meeting
with the three latent kitten elders
I have spoken to you about.
As per the elders' request,
Sam also attended the meeting.
Our team has been quite overwhelmed with emotion
subsequent to their meeting
and has asked me to pass on to you
their observations
as they felt I might be able to do so
in a calmer fashion than they could,
and as they have requested a day off
for rest and meditation.
I assured them that I was ready to carry out their request
and that their emotional reactions were to be expected
and were evidence of their compassionate natures.
The meeting took place outdoors
in a large secluded garden,
the whereabouts of which remain undisclosed except to Sam
who drove the team to the garden
in the old pickup truck they have been using for transportation.
The team agreed to be blindfolded during the rides to and from the garden
to further ensure confidentiality.
As temperatures for this time of year
have remained unusually warm,
it was a comfortable night for sitting outdoors.
Our team,
most of whom had had no
or only one previous contact
with a latent kitten,
was extremely impressed
with the gentleness these beings exuded.
Much of the meeting
was spent with the elders giving detailed accounts
of their near extermination
in this locale,
one story of which we shall focus on in a few minutes.
But first I need to tell you that the stories of seemingly senseless
human brutality
weighed and continues to weigh
heavily on our team's hearts.
They found that humanity's usual rationalization
comparing us to other predators
who cull the weak
does not stand up to close examination.
For in every way, other than not creating and using lethal weapons,
it is we who are the weak ones
and latent kittens the strong.
For example,
just look at their advanced powers
of communication,
generosity of spirit,
endurance and love,
not to mention their physical prowess.
On the other hand, so great was our team's sense of despair and self-loathing
after their meeting
that they likened our own kind
to some sort of strange mistake run amok,
a species living in duality
swinging between extremes both highly creative and destructive,
a species more like an invasive bacteria
that overtakes its host,
than a mammal.
These sobering judgements
are ones we have all shared
at various points during our gatherings,
albeit with a range of different metaphors.
Because our responses to our studies are often painful
and highly emotional,
I believe it is fitting
to speak of them at this time
before continuing with news
of last night's meeting.
In the past weeks and, no doubt, in the coming ones as well
we have witnessed
and shall continue to witness
the emotional outbursts from various classmates
that we are familiar with.
When my colleagues and I were developing this course
we anticipated
just such occurrences.
And though many of you have expressed shame and fears
of having gone mad
after copious weeping
and/or shouting in rage
at humanity's actions,
we want to reiterate that your feelings
are neither shameful nor mad.
Indeed, had more of humanity
been able to feel what you feel,
we, and latent kittens, might not be in the dire situation
we find ourselves in today.
We have previously discussed the possibility
of introducing periods of non-denominational meditation
into our class schedule.
I believe this is a splendid idea
which we can begin after our lunch break.
One of my colleagues will guide us
in our first few meditations
as she has been a practitioner
of a type of centering
originating in Buddhism,
although she assures me
that any of us can participate
in this practice
whether we have been born into
a particular faith
or born
into
none.
The Sad Story of Sand's Family Caught Up in the Great Extermination of 1900:
A note in the service of clarity
before commencing Sand's story about The Great Extermination:
Latent kittens do name one another
but because their names are incomprehensible to humans,
they have suggested we call them by names familiar to us.
The three elders who met with our team
therefore chose the following names
by which we shall henceforth
refer to them:
*Sand
*Roof
and
*Ear.
Sand's great great great great great grandmother
who plays a major role in the story
I am about to relay to you
is called Boat.
(Do not be concerned about whether you can fathom the number of "greats"
attached to Boat--
all you need to know is that she was ten years old
at the time of the Great Extermination of 1900
which she managed to survive.
She then initiated a tradition in her family
of passing her story
from generation to generation
which is how Sand came to tell our team
this deeply disturbing, but illuminating, history.
Boat and her extended family
lived an ordinary peaceful life
near where this very building stands today.
They were engaged in the usual latent kitten pursuits
of developing consciousness across species
and continuing their stewardship of their surroundings.
The human population near by
were known to be erratic
and given to outbursts of temper,
but such outbursts had remained largely contained
until several years prior to 1900
when stories of disappearances
among the latent kitten population began surfacing.
It was on an early autumn night
that Boat was awakened
by cries and shattering screams from her family
and the larger grouping of latent kittens,
plus strange human shouts
and what she came to know as
the sound of gunshots.
A scene of horror greeted her eyes and ears:
humans wielding guns, bats and swords
attacked members of her family
who were resisting the assaults
by whatever means possible,
humans so beset by rage and fear
that they murdered everyone in sight
except Boat
who was partly hidden behind a large rock.
Once the humans discovered her presence,
she was in extreme shock,
nearly fainting
and was easily captured
and led away
with other latent kittens,
many as young as she or younger.
They were taken to a terrible place
of high pointed fences
where the humans alternately
starved them
or forced them into repetitive exhausting labour
both senseless and highly destructive.
As examples, Boat recalled being lined up
and made to dig deep holes,
disrupting much plant life
only to be made to fill in the holes
at day's end
amidst the dead bodies
of bushes, ground covers and hardy late summer flowers.
She also recalled having to chop into
a large mountain day after day
which she and the latent kittens felt
was a blind desecration.
The boulders and stones that resulted
from this hideous exercise
were then hauled off by other latent kittens,
under pain of death,
to undisclosed places of darkness.
Boat was never able to say
how long she was in captivity--
since her anguish distorted her sense of time.
However, it came to pass
that several other young latent kittens and she
felt a growing
determination
to seek freedom
even risking death to do so.
And so, after much careful planning,
news of which spread
throughout the captured population,
they were able to deceive their guards,
immobilize them
and break through the fences.
Nearly 300 latent kittens escaped that night,
the largest single such occurrence
during that dreadful period.
The latent kittens had agreed to scatter
once out of captivity
to make it harder for them
to be retaken.
As it happened, a war had broken out among the humans
with one camp opposing the capturing and murdering of latent kittens.
Their side prevailed, but during that period of war,
life was even more dangerous for latent kittens
as they had to stay well hidden
from the roiling bloodshed all around them.
Boat recalls walking by night
with other former prisoners
for many days
until gunfire could no longer be heard.
Here a group of them eventually settled
and, as I'm sure you can appreciate,
because they had been so desperately wounded,
much of their time was now exclusively devoted
to helping one another reclaim their lost peace.
A Glimpse of Informal Cross Species Cordiality and Sympathy
As Sand relayed Boat's story to our team,
Roof and Ear emitted cries and low pitched vocalizations
at particularly difficult points of the narrations.
They had similar tragedies to relate,
but it was a brief discussion,
almost an aside,
near the end of the meeting
that instilled some calmness in our team
which they hope to draw upon as we continue our work.
It seems that Roof and Ear have been meeting on a regular basis
with four human children
that they came upon in the forested valley
not far from the university.
They met the children this past spring
as the four played hide and seek
among the trees and rocks.
Roof and Ear were out for a ramble
after the confinement of an unusually cold March.
What impressed them about the human children
was their lack of cruelty toward one another.
Seeing this as a hopeful sign,
the elders approached the children,
who at first were astonished,
but showed no fear of the latent kittens.
Latent kittens often find that their first contacts with humans
are with children
who are at a more open stage of development
than their adult counterparts.
(Indeed, my first encounter with a latent kitten occurred when I was just twelve.)
Roof and Ear have met weekly
with these four young humans
and have gone so far as to introduce them
to some young latent kittens.
Generally they meet in the valley,
wander about,
speak of the changes in climate, the plants, trees, insects, other animals they still see traces of,
and tell each other stories of their lives.
This glimpse of informal cross species cordiality and sympathy
has helped our team immeasurably
in their determination to continue in aid of latent kittens,
this despite the despair that also arises in them.
They believe we, too, will see this example of latent kittens' openness
as evidence of the worthiness of our mission (as it were)
in the face of indifference and/or ridicule from large swaths of the populace.
