”Vi försörjer oss på det vi får, men vi skapar ett liv av det vi ger.”
Läs meningen en gång till. Och en gång till.
Du har just läst meningen med livet, uttalad av Sir Winston Churchill. Fast han sade naturligtvis ”We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”
Och så är det: Att leva är att ge. Att ge är att leva.
Funderar du på om Sir Winston hade någon katt (Ovan klappar han skeppskatten Blackie) så är svaret funnet i en London Times från 1998:
Stately homes left to the nation seldom have a permanent resident, bar the odd ghost, mouse or housekeeper. One National Trust house, however, goes out of its way to ensure it is always occupied – by a fat marmalade cat.
”Sir Winston requested in his will that there should always be a marmalade cat named Jock in comfortable residence at Chartwell,” explains Victoria Leighton, part of whose job description is to look after the current incumbent, six-year-old Jock III. ”We have to be careful where he goes, though, as his claws could do a lot of damage. We try to ensure he keeps to the garden, where he sits happily in the catmint or any patch of sunshine.”
Sir Winston Churchill was silly about cats – particularly marmalade ones, which would sit next to him on a specially reserved chair. None of his spoilt marmalades were fond of the other furry creatures of Chartwell, though. Churchill reported to his wife in August 1954 that her Siamese cat Gabriel ”gets on very well with everyone except his yellow rival”, with whom the relationship could best be described as ”an armed neutrality”.
A ginger cat with white chest and paws was an 88th birthday present for Churchill in November 1962, and was promptly named Jock, after the private secretary Sir John Colville, known as Jock, who gave it to him. This cat was such a favourite that he is even seen sitting on Churchill’s knee in his grandson Winston’s wedding photographs. Jock was only two when Churchill died in 1965, but lived on until 1974 at Chartwell and is now buried in the pet cemetery there.
In compliance with Churchill’s wishes, the National Trust – which inherited Chartwell on his death – has since acquired ginger cats called Jocks II and III.
