Blog by Ronnie Johnson, Ph.D.

The Guru’s Cat

I have been using the following poem in Christian Education classes for years.  It suggests that some teaching methods continue to be performed in a given way because they have always been done that way.  Tell me what you think.

When the guru sat down to
    worship each evening,
The ashram cat would get in the way
    and distract the worshippers.
So he ordered that the cat be tied
    during evening worship.

After the guru died, the cat continued
    to be tied during evening worship.
And when the cat expired, another cat
    was brought to the ashram
so that it could be duly tied
    during evening worship.

Centuries later, learned treatises were
    written by the guru’s scholarly disciples
on the liturgical significance
    of tying up a cat
while worship is performed.

Anthony de Mello, “The Guru’s Cat,”
The Song of the Bird,
Doubleday: New York, 1982, p. 63.

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