I don’t know what tonight means to you.
You may be singing carols of a great mercy. You may be hosting the Feast of the Seven Fishes. You may be dispatching an entire sleeve of Oreos in your holey sweatpants.
I do know we are all here, tonight, together.
We are together, on our knees under fairy lights or overpasses. We are together, on another eve of another impossible morning. We are together, Tabby’s Place people, ragged shepherds with tin foil halos. The tin foil is there to wrap the freeze-dried turkey for the cat who will not eat any of the seven fishes.
We believe in miracles, although our definitions range a mile wide. We believe in throwing on faded coats to feed ferals by night. We believe in leaving ninety-nine safe cats sleeping by the fireplace to go find the one in the cold. We believe we cannot rest until each striped and speckled soul feels its worth.
We believe in Paterson, which is why I know we are here, tonight, together.
Poll the people in their plaids and parkas, and you will find that we are in the minority. More citizens approve of mincemeat and fruitcake than the folly of our calling. What kind of imps and elves are we, to stop the whole storybook for a single cat?
And what a cat! A clot of coal, sooty and empty-handed, this was no Christmas toy. People who weigh pros and cons would be listless in an instant. Merry days are for calico kittens and pudding pie. Throw in a grey stranger, dragging his legs, and you will bring down the mood. Knot the lights up with extreme need, and you will shatter the snow globe.
But Tabby’s Place has no protective force-field. We do not live under glass. We cannot live without the foolishness of love.
We believe in Paterson, and so we perplex people. We believe in miracles miles wide, and so it looks, to the naked eye, as though we wander.
But maybe, if we stay together, we can make them wonder. Maybe this time next year, they’ll be together, with us.
Paterson is only here because we are together. Angels in suit jackets and flannel shirts and scrubs linked arms across miles and emails and weeks and prayers. The people who found him and the people who loved him and the people who said “welcome to Tabby’s Place, buddy” are all one people, a great graced fellowship of the merciful.
People as different as eve and dawn formed a wreath of protection around a single pewter cat. People who could have gone home and decorated their own lives chose, instead, to go down, down, down, all the way to where the sadness lives.
People who could have said “he’s just a cat” said, instead, “he’s Paterson! Joy to the world!”
We all said it together.
And some Brilliance, when glimpses us together, exhales miracles. It sees us, tenacious and tender and trusting each other across our differences. It sees Paterson, pulled from city streets by earthy heavenly hands. It sees people big enough to give their entire, unwrapped selves so someone small can live.
It sees to it that a grey cat becomes precious as silver, and a dragging cat gets an invitation to the dance.
With no explanation but the awe that explains all, Paterson was not paraplegic. Some abominable snowman had gnawed his back like the last gingerbread man, but the stray would swagger again. We regaled him with wound care and kisses. He responded with the enthusiasm of every child who has ever dreamed.
Paterson did not want seven fishes. Paterson did not want to hear sleigh bells. Paterson wanted to pour his entire past into this present, head-bonking all available foreheads with the full force of bliss. Paterson wanted to inexplicably open his locked cage and frolic, reminding us that mercy and comedy are always twins.
Paterson wants to live and feast and tell jokes with the whole family surrounding him.
Paterson is getting his wish. And so are we, all of us, together.
I do not know if cats keep their own quiet calendars, spangled with holy days and hullabaloos all their own. I cannot say if they hear the angel voices.
I only know that we are here, together, silver tails and burning hearts.
Love has come. Love is here. Love will come again.