When in Doubt, Add Sliced Cheese

So I was having this chat with my cat, Claude. I knew I had his attention because his eyes were fixed on mine – he was genuinely intrigued.

I was venting about my situation: the job, the kids, the ex-wives, parenting, money, and everything in between. Sometimes you just have to have conversations with yourself to get an alternative view, and as you can see, it was working. I talked about making a new start, navigating blockages and risks, and dealing with zero support – only animosity and self-preservation. Naturally, I found myself wondering how I caused all this to befall me.

Finding the Thread

Amidst the chaos, I kept insisting that the past doesn’t matter. You just have to have some faith and push through to the thing you are called to do, to the person you are called to be. Every now and then, you simply have to fake the certainty that it will be okay in the end.

Then I’d go off on another tangent about something else that had gotten under my skin, completely losing the plot, the thread, and a needle in a haystack.

Tuning Into Claude

By this point, Claude’s look had changed. He wanted to respond and say something reassuring to me. It’s not that he really speaks aloud; it’s more that I can sometimes read his mind. It’s a knack I have.

Tuning into his frequency, I started getting a signal. It wasn’t all just white noise anymore; it sounded like a chant of some sort.

However, the enunciation was all wrong. It sounded like Tom Waits doing Tiny Tim. Claude saw I was stumbling and not getting it, so he altered his approach, lowering his chin. Behold: Sean Connery doing Homer Simpson. This was a little more palatable, and in the end, his message became quite clear.

He said, “Sliced Cheese.”