Published August 11, 2026
There was once a cat who knew everything. She knew how the plants grew, how the rain poured, how the wind blew and how the birds soared. She had so much curiosity. She had wondered about everything for as long as she could remember.
She had spent her whole life learning and knowing about everything. But it seemed that with every new thing she learned, there was to be something unpleasant behind it.
She found that when plants grow, if they don't get the correct amounts of sunlight and water, they die, sometimes when rain pours too heavily it can be disastrous, when the wind blows at magnitudes of speed, it can knock down trees, destroying the lives of those who inhabit them and when the young birds are preparing to sore and spread their wings for the first time, many of them die trying.
Knowing these made her upset, she didn't want there to be bad in the world. When she then tried to remember the good she had learned, all she could think about was the bad that would follow it.
It left her in a state of despair. She walked around looking at all the other cats, wondering how they can be so happy when there's so much bad to worry about.
She approached one of them and asked him this very question.
"I didn't know any of that", he replied. "I had never wondered before".
He now sat with a feeling of utter dismay and sadness. How could the world be so cruel he wondered.
The cat walked away wishing she had never known anything, not even the good things. Because with every good, comes bad.
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141,530 Literary Works • 674,853 Reviews
perhaps this is the truth behind this bittersweet world. we should take the bad with good, and good with bad. they cannot exist without each other. lovely work <3
Absolutely!
Thank you so much for reading!!
Hi Hannax.
Darius here, read and enjoyed your story about the cat and it seems the cat is me😂
So beautifully crafted is the way you bring out how information overload can be a thief of joy especially in our era of melodramatic loads of controlled news everywhere and the social media phenomenon in how it sows negative awareness which breeds competition, comparison and discontentment thus unhappiness. It seems to me that to indiscriminatively know too much has become one of the etiologies of unhappiness.
Not to mention that intelligence too as may be depicted by the character traits of the cat seems more of a curse than a blessing in that you notice what others don't，the flaws, the imperfections and the like, it is utterly stressful.
The story is beautiful crafted to carry a very beautiful mirror for a lot and myself included, it reminds me to control how much and what sort of information I consume, to not try controlling everything and to focus on what I can control but also to be tolerant and accept that there is beauty in imperfection, nothing would ever get done if God only used perfect people.
Thank you😊
I'm so glad you liked it!
I absolutely agree with you. In this day and age we know way too much and it is often so much mor bad rather than good. We should focus on the good in life and try to see that the imperfections within the good can add to the beauty of it.
Thanks so much for reading!!
You're welcome, dear Hannax😊
You could find a good read in the book Factfulness by Swedish writer Hans Gosling, it resonates with the topic you beautifully wrote about😊
I am currently on Chapter 4 and feel the world needs more incurable optimists like you and I and less cynics.
Hi Hannax! I'm here to review your work
This story is a paradox as old as time! I think you captured the essence of it sweetly using cats, especially given the fact that cats are so chill lol (most of the time).
The old scripture says, "For in much wisdom is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow". And of course the legendary Uncle Ben, "with great power comes great responsibility". Knowledge is power (another saying as old as time!).
There are studies that say that very high intelligence can be associated with higher rates of anxiety, depression, and social isolation. This might be because high cognitive ability can lead to greater self-awareness of personal limitations, more critical thinking about life, and seeing all those little flaws in the world and people around us.
I really love how the Japanese look at it. Kintsugi. It is an art form but also a philosophy that treats breakage or flaws as part of an object’s history, not something to hide and can actually add to the beauty of that thing.
This and other philosophical thoughts on the nature of happiness, joy, and peace help me personally to accept that this life is a paradoxical dichotomy in many ways.
The fact your short story brought all of those concepts to the surface for me is a testament to your writing. When you can make people think, you're doing it right!
Thank you for sharing your story with us!
Thank you so much!! I'm new to writing and have found it such a good way to express these feelings I've never been able to explain before.
I'm definitely gonna look into kingtsugi! It sounds so interesting.
The question "if ignorance is bliss, why seek knowledge", has been on my mind so much lately and I thought that maybe putting it into a short story might be a fun take on it.
Thanks so much for your review, I'm glad you liked it!