A Fight to the Finish

There was a black cat who liked to drink milk. All the other cats liked to drink milk, and when the store owner would empty out all the stale milk from his store every few days all the cats would race to drink the milk. This black cat, however, sat there and watched as the rest of the cats raced for the milk, pushing, fighting, scratching, arguing, to make sure they got as much of the milk as they could.

This black cat watched it all, every few days, the circus unfolded in front of him. It's not that the black cat didn't like milk, he did, but he didn't need it that badly.

One day, as the store owner was emptying the stale milk into the street for the cats to drink, one of the cats, who wasn't very good at pushing his way through the rest of them, noticed the black cat sitting there, watching it all. Usually none of them noticed him because they were obsessing over the milk, but for some reason today the white cat saw him.

This white cat walked over to the observer, and asked him, "What are you doing here? Don't you want any of the milk?"

The black cat looked at him and said, "Not really. If the milk was offered to me, I might have some, but look at the rest of the cats over there, they are doing more fighting, pushing, scratching, arguing, than they are drinking milk. They do not know what they are drinking at the moment, even though the milk passes through their lips. They are too busy worrying about their next lick, worrying about who else is going to stop them from getting their next little bit, that they are ignoring completely the tasting of the milk itself".

The white cat, after hearing this from the black cat, looked over to the scramble of cats trying to feverishly lick up as much milk as they could. He noticed their eyes darting around, looking for other cats who might push them away, always on guard, always fearful of losing their spot.

"But surely," said the white cat, "you can't have tasted this man's milk before. This milk is the best in all of the shops in the town, how can you say you don't need it when you haven't tasted it?"

The black cat answered back, "You're right, I haven't tasted this man's milk. And if I don't fight, scratch, argue, and push with all the other cats then I probably never will taste it. But neither will they."

Hearing this, the white cat sat down next to the black cat, and they watched from afar as the town cats faught, scratched, argued, and pushed each other for the rights to the milk.