Aging & Wisdom Quote by Mason Cooley

“Even cats grow lonely and anxious” lands because it smuggles vulnerability into an animal we mythologize as self-sufficient. Cooley takes the cultural shorthand for feline coolness - solitary, aloof, above needing anyone - and punctures it with two plain, human words: lonely, anxious. The sentence is small, almost throwaway, but the “Even” does the heavy lifting. It implies a hierarchy of expected neediness, and cats sit near the bottom. If they’re not immune, who is?

Cooley, an aphorist with a knack for turning domestic observation into moral pressure, isn’t really writing about pets. He’s writing about the stories we tell ourselves to justify emotional distance. “I’m fine on my own” becomes a kind of performance: a cat pose for people who don’t want to admit they need company, reassurance, touch. By invoking cats, Cooley offers cover: if a creature famous for independence can feel social deprivation, then your own restlessness isn’t melodrama, it’s biology.

There’s also a quiet corrective here to how modern life treats isolation as an achievement. Loneliness and anxiety aren’t framed as personal failures or weak character; they’re framed as inevitable conditions that surface when connection is missing. Cooley’s intent feels less sentimental than diagnostic: the cool mask doesn’t cancel the nervous system. Even cats.