The Most Beautiful

Fred, my cat, and I were lazing one sunny June afternoon on the porch. We were both on separate rocking chairs (Fred's was custom made!).  I was watching two birds joust over a large red hibiscus.
 

 I thought that Fred was dozing until he blurted out: "What is the most beautiful, awesome, fantastic, fabulous  "thing," "it," in man?"
 

I went through a process of elimination and answered:

 

"imagination."

 

Fred  had put on a nonchalant face.  I could tell he is an accomplished poker player.

"Imagination? I was sure you were going to say Love," he gave me a sideways look.
 

"Ah...but my dear Watson," I explained as I started feeling the fire in my belly, "you need imagination to love. You gotta have imagination to hope. You have to have imagination to have faith. You have to have imagination to accept and forgive. To be able to learn and create, you need imagination. You have to have imagination to live.  I must have imagination to even  hear you talking to me."
 

I  piled them on top of Fred. I could tell that this time I will have the last word  in a discussion with my smart aleck of a cat.
 

Fred merely looked thoughtfully at the garden.
 

Just as I was about to say, "I finally gotcha," I turned to Fred and asked curiously:

"What  for you is the most beautiful in man?"

 

 

- Ariel Murphy