Unhappiness

I was reading in a book
that cats prefer warm places,

except, apparently, when it
is warm all the time, or so
I've recently noticed with Boo.

She has taken to collecting herself
beneath ceiling fans, so she can
enjoy the reverse of what she normally seeks.

It occurs to me that she bears
her discomforts better than
a person would, who instead
of readusting, would probably
find someone to complain to.

That, I think, would be the main difference
between animals and people, that animals
can compensate, whereas people do everything
possible to avoid such a peril, and finally
innovate only as a last resort.

If we are unhappy, it's because we've
made it all but impossible to be anything but;
we've literally given happiness over to others,
and that's the real prize, not in any monetary
sense, but as a social contract, which
we allow to bind ourselves in every-increasing
knots.

Sometimes it's easier to figure out
what a cat would do instead.