This morning, as every morning, I was met outside in the predawn hours by my exceedingly large, exceedingly affectionate “fat cat.” Bustopher is his name and if you remember the Andrew Lloyd Webber wonderful stage play (we don’t speak of the movie; it was not a winner like the play, which is one of the longest running musicals in modern history!), you will recognize the lyrics, “Bustopher Jones is not skin and bones! In fact, he’s incredibly fat! He’s a twenty-five pounder! He is a bounder! He’s the Saint James’ Street cat!”
Sadly, I inherited Bustopher, a yellow tabby, when one of my Lampasas friends died suddenly from an infection combined with his chronic diabetes. I now have seven cats, all neutered, but I must confess to having favorites, one of whom is my “Fat Cat”! I am a dog person, believe it or not, but I love all my animals: donkeys, goats, horses, geese, chickens, guinea fowl, the deer, armadillos (not so much the obnoxious raccoons!), dogs and cats – a regular menagerie!
Loving on Fat Cat this morning in the dark, I was musing about what I wanted to write about when the term “fat cat” jumped out at me! “Fat cats” are, and have always been, with us! We all know at least one, someone who has more money than they need, someone who could do so much for the “common good” with that money, but who prefer to lord it over the rest of us spending it on themselves and their selfaggrandizement! It has been said that, “The poor are always with us!” It follows, then, that the rich are also always with us! Some for the good and some for the not so good!
Thank God for opposites of fat cats, people who work for their neighbors, locally, nationally, internationally, and, as such, for all mankind! I prefer the term, human-kind, but hey, I am a liberated lady or “woman”! Ha!
Speaking of a recent example of working for the common good, have you heard that Dolly Parton helped with funding the effort to find a vaccine for the corona virus? Pretty great, huh? Also, do you know just how much Bill and Melinda Gates have done, not only for the pandemic response, but funding also on a regular basis for world health and world hunger? “Better Angels!”
Importantly, do you also know who your neighbors are who help every day in San Saba, Lometa, Lampasas, Austin and cities and towns ad infinitum by funding and/or working among the poor, for the hungry, and for wonderful local churches and their benevolences? For example, there are those who volunteer at The Mission or help out at The Father’s House. . . people who are actually doing mitzvah or obeying God’s commandment to do good deeds.
In combination with those good people among us, I cannot help but reflect on their opposites, on one such “fat cat,” now deceased, who was infamous for his billions and luxurious estates and who hosted famous people for parties where young women were used as sex toys for the pleasure of other big name “fat cats.” These same “fat cats” boast of their names and are always seeking more and more money and more and more power.
You know what? Wealth and power can do so much for “the common good”! It is unfortunate when the “fat cats” forget and/or usually just ignore! It is unfortunate when our “Better Angels” (again, Old Honest Abe’s term) are somehow lost to greed and to grift!
Saints protect us! Maybe these “fat cats” need a diet, or at least, a talking to! Maybe even by Uncle Sam and the IRS! Audit! Audit!