I was in the Post Office this afternoon, waiting in the queue, idly looking at the gifts on display in the ten dollar sale box, when the cat and dog wallets caught my eye.
All the cat wallets were pink, with a photo of a cute cat in a shopping bag on the front. These were girl wallets. All the dog wallets were blue, with a photo of a cute golden retriever puppy with an upturned blue bowl on his head. These were boy wallets.
I remembered that I used to think that all cats were girls, and all dogs were boys. You may think that is understandable in a small child. But what if I were to tell you that I believed this until I was thirty five?
Yes, we had family pets, and so did our neighbours. Of course I knew cats and dogs came in both kinds. But that was just knowledge. It wasn't until I was thirty five that I was lying in bed one night, thinking, or perhaps I was dream-thinking, about cats and dogs, and that if all dogs were boys and if all cats were girls, how could they possibly mate? I woke up, shocked to discover what I'd believed.
I wonder what else I don't know I believe?
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Very interesting. I think we all have some beliefs that are held as a consequence of non-thought and they vaporise once we look at them I remember my youthful myth of weight where I accepted that my weight was so-many stones, ponds and ounces. But then one day I thought that cannot be and when I eat, perspire pee and poo my weight must change. And the shock for me was that as a student of physics it had taken me so long to shed the trivial but erroneous view that I weighed a fixed amount.
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