December 15, 2012 - Cat Herders Day

No,nwe are not honoring people who herd cats today.
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A cat herder?

n Inknow that’s what this holiday sounds like, but think about it: havenyou ever heard of a cat herder?
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nThat’snbecause cats can’t be herded!

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These cats have not been herded
together. They are sitting like this
because they want to!

nTodaynis the day to honor those who are tasked with the impossible. Peoplenwho are supposed to do the undoable.

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nSometimes,nI think that’s me. Do you sometimes think that’s you, too?

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nWell,nthen, let’s celebrate me and you today, too!

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nQuotesnto keep you going…

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nIfnyou are faced with the impossible, you could think of wise words suchnas these:

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n“Because a thing seemsndifficult for you, do not think it impossible for anyone tonaccomplish.” – Marcus Aurelius

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n“Women, like men,nshould try to do the impossible. And when they fail, their failurenshould be a challenge to others.” – Amelia Earhart

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n“By striving to do thenimpossible, man has always achieved what is possible. Those who havencautiously done no more than they believed possible have never takenna single step forward.” – Mikhail Bakunin

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n“The difficult is whatntakes a little time…the impossible is what takes a little longer.”n– Fridtjof Nansen

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nNow,nI am not so sure I am 100% behind all these great quotes. I mean,nsome things probably are actually impossible. For example, Inam never going to be 5 feet 8 inches tall, no matter how much Inexercise and eat nutritious food and try and try to stand a littlentaller. (I am quite short!) And I do not know how wise it is to trynto do all impossible things. n

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nButnI do love this quote:

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n“I have learned to usenthe word impossible with the greatest caution. – Werner vonnBraun n

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nI’m sure that some peoplenthought that humans could never fly—and now flying from New York tonLos Angeles is routine for some! And did going to the moon seemnimpossible to many people?

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nOfncourse we can always learn from the late, great Douglas Adams:

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n“The impossible oftennhas a kind of integrity which the merely improbable lacks.” –nDouglas Adams

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n“Sixnimpossible things before breakfast”

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nHere is a portion ofnAlice Through the Looking Glass:

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n‘Incan’t believe that!‘nsaid Alice.

‘Can’tnyou?’ the Queen said in a pitying tone. ‘Try again: draw a longnbreath, and shut your eyes.’

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nAlicenlaughed. ‘There’s no use trying,’ she said, ‘one can’tnbelievenimpossible things.’

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n‘Indaresay you haven’t had much practice,’ said the Queen. ‘When I wasnyour age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I’venbelieved as many as six impossible things before breakfast.’

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nWhennI read this, I like the silliness of it. But it also speaks to menabout what it feels like to learn about some of the most amazingnthings in science. n

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nInthink that we should not “believe” in everything, willy-nilly,nbut should instead look to evidence to decide what is real andntrue—but sometimes scientific evidence seems to go against what wensee with our own two eyes! That’s because our eyes can be fooled bynthings such as optical illusions, and we can fool ourselves withnwishful thinking and other logical fallacies, as well. Most of all,nwe experience the universe of medium sizes and slow speeds, and wenhave intuitive “gut feelings” and “common sense” that arenbased on those experiences. But a lot of what we now know about thenuniverse has to do with very, very large and very, very small objectsnand very fast speeds—and so the evidence points to facts that seemnto those gut feelings…

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n…well,nimpossible! n

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nButnit is a wonderful thing to examine the evidence, accept the evidence,nand believe the seemingly impossible, and see where that takes us. Asnlong as we are grounding ourselves on empirical evidence, it can takenus to amazing places!

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nAlsonon this date:

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