So many ways to see, and so many more ways to relate …

Written by Swetha Nambiar, LEC 2019

Have you seen a cat ?

Have you seen a child see a cat ?

Have you seen a dog see a cat ?

Have you seen a fish, a rat or a bee see a cat ?

You can, if you pick up “They all saw a cat” by Brendan Wenzel.

“The cat walked through the world with whiskers, ears and paws”

And all the creatures around , saw the cat. The very same cat that each one saw was so very different in the way it looked to each of them. And then, that cat saw itself in its reflection !

And that simply blew my mind ! 

It’s a book that relies heavily on the illustrations so do not pay any attention to what I am saying unless you have picked up that book.

This book has been the biggest take-away for me not just from this session but from this life. It is amazing how this book settled so many things for me. It made me realise in a matter of minutes why I was not understood, why I did not understand so many people and why everyone finds it difficult to be understood and understand another. The sheer ability of this picture-book to bring home such a profound truth is quite amazing.

This book, at one level it says ‘we all look at things differently’ in a matter-of-fact tone and then at another level it hits you with ‘WE ALL LOOK AT THINGS SOOOO DIFFERENTLY !!!’.

At one level it says ‘this is how people perceive us’ and then at another level it shows ‘THIS IS HOW WE PERCEIVE OURSELVES !!!’.

At one level it says ‘the cat walked through the world with whiskers, ears and paws’ and at another level it is that ‘THE CAT WAS NOT SIMPLY ITS WHISKERS, AND EARS AND PAWS !!!’

As an inhabitant of this complex world, it is very consoling to be reminded often of how different different things are, and that “understanding” as we understand it may not be the only way to “understand”. Our understanding of it all is surely going to be turned inside-out and upside-down after encountering this book. It is also consoling to imagine that like the cat we can walk through this world, expecting people and other creatures to relate to us in their own way and look at ourselves from their perspective and create for ourselves a mosaic of self-portraits that will let us make peace with lived realities of all those around us and with our own selves.

While I say all this, I am cautious (thanks to this very book) that you will take-away something else from this book. And I am all ears (and eyes) to know what it is that you would see in this book !