Good News for Those Who Post Here in the Sink

So true, Kevin.  Our expiry date is something we just can't fathom.  And, as you say it was a great blessing that we got to 'adopt' Albert after his first 'fur daddy' died at about 102 yrs of age.  Albert was the best thing that happened just at the right time, kept hubby entertained and purposed.  If the cat lady works out, I'll worry a lot less during trips.  I'll pay whatever it takes, because dog kennels mostly don't take cats, at least around here. 

Anyway, thank you for your good wishes!

Candy

Candy, so sorry for your loss.  I will keep you and your family in my prayers.  I am also glad that you have Albert to not only keep you company, but to be a special reminder of your husband.  When my step father passed away about 13 years ago, they had a wonderful cat, April, that was very connected to my step dad.  April was a fantastic companion for my mother until April died about 8 years ago. 

It's also nice that you found a cat sitter and I hope that works out really well, and you have a good time on your Vegas trip.  

Thanks, Edso.  It is amazing how comforting words like this can be.  So glad your mother had April to be of comfort and companionship for that long. 

After we got Albert we started being obsessed with vet shows on TV and realized the emotional attachment that occurs, human to fur baby and back, not just us but most vet clients.  The first trip I took leaving hubby and Albert, I swear I worried more about Albert, missed him more, wished I hadn't taken the trip.  Kept it to myself, of course, but I could have cried.  Each subsequent trip got a little easier in that regard. 

I'm anxious to meet the 'new' cat sitter and find out how they get along.  She comes highly recommended through a friend of mine, so I'm optimistic.

Thanks again, Edso.  Prayers work, I'm convinced of that.  Today is a week and a day after his death, and I feel the clouds lifting.  Blessings right back at ya.

Candy

I went straight from my Vegas cat sitting adventure to a two-cat sitting vacay at my brother's house. He and his girlfriend are in Europe for a month. As the school year won't start for six more weeks, I told them, hey sure, why not. There was actually someone willing to drop by and feed them every morning, but they were worried that, since they're both such people cats, they'd get stressed being away from humans for that long. Also, they would have had to stay inside all day, and they like to go out and patrol the property and bask in the sun. They're brother and sister and I was actually there when they were newborn kittens, so they know me.

So my role as cat concierge is helping my brother avoid worrying about the kids. The fur faces love it that I'm here, and I like being in this town (can't be specific, because my recent criticism of Trump has rekindled the death threats). Everyone's a winner.

I've lost many, many relatives in the last decade or so, something that happens even more when you're a late-life child; my parents were 43 and 41 when I was born, so my grandparents checked out early, as did my aunts and uncles. My parents didn't make it into the 21st century. My wife didn't make it to the Obama administration. My sister was killed just before my parents died. So I've had to deal with loss, and since I'm a staunch atheist, I've never had the safety valve of religion available. I don't think there's an afterlife; I believe that death is final and we all cease to exist, except in the memories of those we knew and loved and any works we may have left behind that may endure.

People have told me that they feel sorry for me for not having the comfort of religion, but as I think that religion was basically invented to deny the awful finality of death--what religion on the planet doesn't have an afterlife as its central tenet?--I don't miss that at all. Instead, I think and say that we don't GET a second chance, that our earthly lives are the beginning and end of our existences, and we therefore should fierely cherish them.

I'd make a shitty soldier; I couldn't be induced to charge screaming toward the enemy by the exhortation that if I get my head blown off, I'll wind up in heaven or Valhalla or Cleveland. But wowza, has that mythology worked for sending young men to their deaths, myriad times in human history.

Thanks for listening. I hope that your upcoming trip serves as a comfort and a distraction (which is kinda contradictory, I know). Drink recreational beverages.

Oh, Kevin, how funny, that "religion was invented..."  So very Kevin of you. LOL.  Like the telephone or light bulb.

I'm glad I do have that afterlife to look forward to.  I doubt it is like we wish it to be, as in "Hi Grandma, you look great!  How is your hip? Can you still make that fresh coconut cake?"  I have hope to believe the pain free and no more tears part (Rev. 21:1-4), am comforted by that.  I wouldn't know what to do without my church friends and activities, and a reason to try to be a better person, e.g. love my neighbor.  (1 Corinthians 13:4-6.)

So  you don't believe the Bible is a legitimate work?  I don't want to chance it, regarding everlasting life, whatever that turns out to be.  Otherwise, why bother?

Candy 

That sounds suspiciously like Pascal's Wager. 

The Bible is a beautifully written book of fables, history, and allegorical poetry.

Stay strong in your faith, Candy, and continue to live a well meaning and fruitful life.  I know you are comforted in knowing that your husband is in a better place. Be well. 

Believers are comforted by thinking that their loved ones are in a better place. There's no possible way that they could know.

Religion was invented (in many different places and times) because of three painful truths:

Death is final (no, it isn't! There's an afterlife!).

Life isn't fair (yes, it is! The gods are keeping track!)

No one's watching over us (yes, they are!)

SOOOOO much easier to dream up an "antidote" to all of those truths rather than face them. I totally understand. It's like getting drunk. Everything seems so much better, even if the means are artificial. And who's to say we aren't all better off bathing in the pink rosy light of religion rather than facing the cruel, harsh light of reality? Let's face it: sometimes, life sucks. Religion is therapeutic.

There's only one problem with that: it keeps the slaves from rebelling and the serfs content. They labor in the muck all day, but they can look up to the castle on the hill and think, that guy's going to hell, ha, ha, and good for him. My suffering doesn't matter, I'm going to end up in paradise because I know the right chants and rituals and I believe.

It's an interesting question whether, from an evolutionary standpoint, religion is adaptive or maladaptive. I think it's the former, though the jury's still out.

Rather than thinking that my deceased loved ones and friends live on, somewhere other than Earth, I prefer to cherish my memories of them and make sure they're not forgotten. That's more precious to me than it might be if I just said, "Well, now Uncle Fred's in the most comfy recliner in the universe, watching reruns of "Seinfeld," and angels bring him all the Bud Light he wants." (And fresh, hot pizza rolls.)

Faith, Kevin, that's what religion gives to people. You are an atheist,  I get it.  We get it.  My comment was to Candy, not you.  You didn't need to comment and provide us with an essay on your beliefs against religion. Jeez.  

Has anyone in the history of this or any other internet forum "needed" to comment?

And I don't have "beliefs against" religion. First, I don't have beliefs--something is either true or untrue, regardless of what I or anyone else may believe. Second, if you actually read my "essay," you'd see that I favor religion even though I personally don't believe in it.

Faith is belief without proof. To me, that seems irrational. But I acknowledge that the vast majority of the population has faith in something--God, Trump, The Force, macaroni and cheese, whatever  It's all good