Lessons from Life observations

While on the morning walk today, I observed an incident which has puzzled me no end. A bunch of half a dozen stray dogs were strolling along the road in a group. Suddenly they became ferocious and barking loudly ‘charged’ in my direction. However, a little distance down, they stopped infront of a house where a cat with its tail tugged between the legs was sitting. Surprisingly, the dogs mellowed down; barking mildly and wagging their tails, they were just observing the cat from a distance. On the other hand, the cat continued to sit stand still staring at the dogs. After a while, the dogs dispersed from the scene. The site caught my attention and since then I was trying to answer the following questions which came to my mind:

1.       Why the dogs which charged down so ferociously towards the cat did did not attack it but stopped near it and ‘cooled’ down?

2.       Why did the cat which to me appeared to be very nervous with the tail tucked inbetwween the legs did not run away into the house (the cat belonged to that house and it remained still inspite of the landlady who came out listening to the Dogs’ barking ordered the cat to go inside the house?)

For long I was trying to find an explanation to this phenomenon. After churning my mind for hours, I came to following conclusion:

1.       May be the cat was shell shocked and froze to remain in that position out of fear (did not know what to do – virtually paralysed).

2.       However, seeing that the cat has remained still, the Dogs might have concluded that the cat is very bold and is prepared to face its adversaries boldly. This bold posture (as interpreted by the Dogs) must have unnerved them.

The incident as I interpret tells me:

1.       Never betray your nervousness to others. Keeping a bold face can unnerve your adversaries even though you may be trembling inside yourself.

2.       No one wants to confront a strong opponent.  Everyone looks for a soft target.

Don’t we observe these ‘realities’ in everyday life? Even at home we observe this phenomenon – a brother dominating over his younger sister, the husband (or wife) dominating the other depending on who is ‘mentally’ tougher) etc. Similar is the trend in the relationship between the managements and trade unions. A strong society (be it because of social status, power, numerical superiority) tries to dominate the weaker ones.

The moment there is retaliation, the equation changes – ‘hierarchy’ of ‘dominance’ gets disturbed. Perhaps most of the time the strength is a mere show – a facade and easily challengeable. All want to test the opposite party’s strength and exploit the weaknesses. We hardly find healthy relationship based on equality and mutual respect. Each one tries to ‘pose’ that he is powerful but ‘crumbles’ at the first sign of retaliation. When the homework is thorough and preparation meticulous, our ‘toughness’ will yield positive results. Today’s observation on ‘animal behaviour’ reinforces this belief system of mine.