Cat....?

My current read really is a good one (thanks, J, for the recommendation!) but I'm reading it slowly because it's darn deep. It's one of those books where I'll read a few sentences, then I'll actually stop and ponder...then I'll re-read them.

That's very anti-Jenn in many ways. As a general rule, I'm a speed demon with books. The Clancy novels used to drive me nuts because I would read them at my normal hyperspeed but I'd end up all confused about the characters because he'd throw new ones in every few pages. Whew. It was a bit much for me although I still loved the spy-who-saves-the-world plotlines.

ANYWAY...back to the book at hand...it's really got me thinking and I'm still in Chapter One. What's kind of funny is that it's got me thinking a lot about Breakfast at Tiffany's. I could be wrong, but I strongly suspect that no one else on the planet would connect this very well-written, Jungian psychology-themed, spiritual-quest-type-book with Audrey's Greatest Role (my personal opinion). I, however, tend to notice (or invent, depending on your point of view) connections that are not traditionally obvious.

As I was taking my exercise walk tonight (and listening over and over to the SATC soundtrack), I kept flashing on the last scene in Breakfast at Tiffany's. For those of you who don't have visions of Holly Golightly dance through your head on a regular basis, I'll enlighten you about the classic final scene from that movie....

Holly has a cat. But she won't name the cat. Artistically, it's because the cat represents her inner self, and she can't accept herself - she has a lot of self-hatred that she tries to cover up with her various issues. So at the end of the movie, it's raining and she finally realizes that she DOES care about the cat (i.e. - she cares about being true to herself, and taking care of herself, and letting herself be loved by a man who really cares about who she is on the inside) and she's wandering through the alley, dripping wet, saying "Cat...? Cat...?" [In case you're curious, she finds the cat and finds her guy, and the three of them presumably live happily ever after - yea, Hollywood!]

So back to my walk....I'm walking along and I have this image of Holly, soaking wet, and calling for Cat. How is this related to my book you might (reasonably) ask? The book is all about giving up on your previous ideas of what you are supposed to be (ideas your parents or teachers probably gave you) and trying to figure out who you truly are so that you can really accept and love yourself.

Even as I re-read this post, however, I can tell that I'm missing the point here. It's not about the connection to the book per se (I was getting way too academic and literary - a rather common phenomenon one will see on this blog)....what it really comes down to is that I'm hunting for Cat. That's it.

Cat...?