I don't like pets. I consider them a nuisance more often than not. They make noise. They make messes. They're a chore to take care of. I know that there are benefits to pet-ownership, but I'm willing to bet I could get the same benefits in other ways or learn to live without them. I don't need any pets.
But I do need to learn how to live with them. My family owns pets. Some members of my family love pets. It may be that I will have to share my home with pets for the rest of my life. So, as much as I dislike pets, I have to learn how to coexist with them.
Perhaps that the lesson I'm supposed to learn from pets: how to coexist with others, particularly those whom I dislike or whose habits I dislike. One cat keeps sitting in my laundry, and another cat keeps sitting in my chair, but that hardly matters. I need to remain kind to these animals I live with, partly because I know they don't know any better, and partly simply because it's important to be kind, especially to those to whom it isn't easy to be kind. That is what it means to be tolerant, to be able to coexist with someone of something, even it they bother you.
We all have to learn how to coexist with each other, especially with the people whose ideas and behavior we dislike. It can be difficult to tolerate some people, but that's why tolerance takes practice. If it was easy, it wouldn't really be "tolerance." We need to learn to coexist with each other (and each other's pets), even when we think we'd be more comfortable if we didn't have to learn to coexist.
My family members' pets are teaching me the virtues of tolerance, coexistence, and patience. And if I can learn to practice these virtues with pets, I should certainly learn to practice them with people, too.
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