WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - The Healing Hour: Pet a Cat When You See One on the Street

Episode Date: January 26, 2026

Adriana and Erika come back from the void to bring you the final episode of their series on Jordan B. Peterson's Twelve Rules for Life. The twelfth and final rule is: Pet a Cat When You See One on the Street. Join the girls as they discuss finding joy in tragedy, the problem of evil and suffering, and making the most of the present's blessings.

Hello and welcome to The Healing Hour on Radio Free Hillsdale, where we bring you your weekly dose of healing. I'm your host, Adriana Azarian. And I'm your co-host, Erica Kaiba. And we're here to help you become your happiest, healthiest, fullest self. And today is an incredibly, incredibly special episode because it is our last episode, the 12th Rule for Life, for those of you who followed the show. We made it to the 11th Rule for Life last year. And then I ran away to Washington, D.C. for a semester. Never to be seen again. Ever again. And I've just popped out of the woodworks. And we decided that it was the time to finish the book. So we hope you guys are ready. One last

ride. We are so excited to bring you guys this episode today. Adriana, what is the final rule for life? I'm so glad you asked me that question, Erica. The 12th and final rule for life is Petta Cat when you encounter one on the street. So it's a little bit of a little bit of a strange title. It's less self-evident than a lot of his other chapter titles are. What did you think that this chapter was going to be about when you went into it? I thought it was just going to be, like, be a nice person and go out of your way to take care of small vulnerable animals and be a kind, compassionate person. And what did we find instead? We found instead a contemplation of existence itself and how one ought to approach existence when it is so full of suffering in tragedy.

We got theodicy, we got existentialism, we got finding joy in being. Overcoming nihilism, which we know is a big threat to the West, right, Erica? Yes, yes. Nialism is a great threat to the West, but thankfully we have Jordan Peterson to combat that. So I thought maybe it would be helpful if we start with the anecdote that gets us the title of this chapter. So Jordan Peterson describes actually at the very end of the chapter how one of his neighbors had a Siamese cat named to Ginger. And sometimes, if Ginger was feeling so inclined, she was a pretty friendly cat, she would come over into neighbor's gardens and she'd let you pet her. Like, if you put your hand out, she'd wander over and you'd pet her and she'd purr and be happy. And because cats are just kind of always doing their own

thing, like they're not like dogs who are like always, you know, wanting human companionship, it's really hit or miss whether you're going to get that kind of attention from a cat. And so the point is, you should cherish those moments when they happen. And then what you've got, in the broader context of the chapter, what's going on around these moments where the Jordan Peterson's children are growing up with this cute cat in the neighborhood is that his daughter, Michaela, is going through these horrible diagnoses, juvenile arthritis that's severely limiting her range of movement, her mood affecting what she's able to do, and the family is struggling and trying to overcome these challenges. And what you get at the end is this example of even through these titanic struggles, one of the worst things that a family can face, a sick child, is even then you get these small moments where you're able to have joy in just being. And I found that really beautiful. I agree, Erica. I think it is a lesson in gratitude because, as we were talking about before, in life, there's always, always going to be suffering and joy.

but the two are not mutually exclusive. You will always suffer. Even in your greatest moments of joy, there's still going to be suffering. And even in your greatest moments of suffering, there's always going to be joy. And the question is, what are you going to focus on? And so when it comes to the cats in your life, or the dogs,

I'm more of a dog person myself. When that does come, you really need to focus on that. Like, I was walking here today, Erica, and I was thinking, it is so, so cold in Michigan. It is so snowy. And, like, making the walk from campus to the radio station is so painful. But then I stopped and I realized, wait a minute, no, the sun is shining.

The sun is shining and it's a beautiful day. And it could be so much worse. And I have a coat and I have a scarf and gloves and that keep me warm. And I'm grateful for that. So even if like this is uncomfortable, there's so much to be grateful for in this moment and to savor that and focus on that. It doesn't mean that you ignore your suffering, but it does mean that if you look for the positives, your mindset and life and existence itself becomes so much more of a gift. Yeah. Oh my gosh.

What you said reminds me of something that I heard from one of my high school teachers. She had just gone through a death in the family and she was really, really struggling. But she looked at us and she said, gratitude is an antidote to misery. Because even in that difficult time, she was, you know, surrounded by a very loving family, students who really liked her friends. She had this really good support system. And did that erase the tragedy? No. But in that tragedy, she was able to look at what she did have and what she was actually very fortunate to have.

and that let her find meaning, even in that tragedy of losing her father, which I think is a really good attitude and a beautiful attitude to have. I was at Mass in Louisville, Kentucky of all places. And I remember there was a priest who was a visiting, no, he wasn't a visiting priest. He was just the regular priest. But his whole homily was about having an attitude of gratitude and just thanking God for everything that you can put your mind on as it comes to you. I have a friend who says that she thanks God whenever she drinks water.

That's great. I love that. Amazing. Because we didn't have to have water. No. We didn't have to have clean drinking water. Not everybody does. Yeah. So I think this chapter is very much. Yes, it's very deeply philosophical and a contemplation of existence and why do we suffer. But I think if there's something to take away from it, it's just that. But you never just purely suffer in this world. Yeah, something I've also been thinking about recently. This chapter was a lot about, you know, having tragedy in your life and being able to overcome that anyway and focus on the good. But I've really been thinking about recently how easy it is to get into a melancholic frame of mind. And even when there's no particular tragedy happening, if you're stressed out about something or if, like, things are uncertain on the horizon to get into this, you know, stressed or melancholic mood.

And something that occurred to me a few months ago is like, when I was stressed, I was like, wait, everyone in my family is happy and healthy. Like, everyone's okay. Like, and that's not a guarantee because to live is to be subject to change in illness and death. And so this good state of being isn't going to be stable. So as long as it's here, I need to enjoy it and get out of my head, you know, when those, like, melancholic fits, like, come down upon me. You know what I mean? I feel like it's so easy to get into that headspace, even if there's not a reason to.

Right. I think some of the biggest regrets in my life are times when I look back at the, you know, certain points in my life and I think I was just not grateful enough for that. I just never occurred to me to be more grateful for that. Not that I, not so much that I like, not that I, you know, was just this ungrateful, like going around, not appreciating. But I think I just, I just kind of took it all for granted and just kind of took it as it was like really neutrally instead of finding joy in it and finding the gift that it was. Yeah. Yeah. What's one example that is most pressing for you of something that you wish you had soaked up the moment more? Ooh. I look back a lot.

on my early college days. And I think that I didn't really, I was incredibly happy and incredibly, like, I had a good first few years at Hillsdale and a good past four years at Hillsdale. But I think that I wish that I had sought people out more and sought out the gifts that other people are instead of kind of waiting until my senior year

to like kind of go out of my comfort zone and to really savor everything around me. I think I just kind of thought, I'll be here for four years. So I can. Yeah. wait until the end. And yes, I've had a good experience. I wonder what it could have been, though, if I was focusing more on the positives of my classes and trying to seek the truth

fully and put more effort into my schoolwork and put more effort into making new friendships or even putting more effort into the friendships that I had and still have. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, there's something about the end of a particular season of life that really makes you reflect, I feel like back. And I feel like everyone kind of reaches a point in their senior year where they're like, wait, I want to do as much of this as possible. And like, I can't believe I wasn't doing this before. Like, I felt the same way about, you know, reaching out to people and going to different events, you know, and like, why didn't I go to, like, all these SAB events that they put on instead of, like, studying and, you know, grinding out. Like, you should grind, but you should

also make the most of these opportunities. So, yeah, I totally get that. Yeah. And if you're just tuning in, you were listening to The Healing Hour on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.1.7 FM. Adriana and I were just talking about Jordan Peterson's 12th Roe for Life, Petitat, when you see one on the street. This is a chapter which, as we mentioned, also talks a lot about Theodicy, the problem of evil and suffering, which is a lot to tackle in the time we have. But I know, Adriana, you were very intrigued by what Jordan Peterson said on this. Yeah, so he brings up this Jewish meditation on suffering. And he talks about, well, human being. if you were omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, whatever, you're perfect, basically you were God.

You would be completely reliant upon yourself. You would not have to rely on anyone else. You would not have any stories to tell. And he says, you know, God is perfect, but God created humans that they could make stories, basically. And, okay, there's some theological issues with this idea. But, however, it is still really interesting of, like, the idea of actually within God's providence, you know, there is evil. and it's very much present within the tapestry that is the universe and existence and all of history.

However, look at how beautiful. We know how beautiful it's all going to be at the very end. When you read the book of Revelation, you see how much more glorious the universe is because there was suffering and how much greater the story is because there was suffering because God himself suffered and died. And I think, like, yeah, so I guess it's just taking that Jewish meditation

and Christianizing it a little bit and realizing, okay, if, like, if I had everything and if I was perfect and if I didn't need to rely on anything, like, what's the fun of that? What's the joy of that? You know, I wasn't made to be God. I was made to glorify God in a better way, like in a better way than just, like, being static. Also, yeah, the thing with not being static is also that you have a choice. Like, we've heard a lot about this. Like, God isn't a tyrant God. He's not going to, like, it would be nice if he could just force people to just choose the right thing. But then we wouldn't really be a lot.

at all. If Adam and Eve were just like puppets for God that he could make them do whatever he wanted, like they wouldn't be Adam and Eve. They had to have the choice to fall. And they did. And that led to all the sin that came downstream of that, but it also led to Christ coming into the world to save us. Oh, happy fault. Oh, happy fault. Yeah. I think that it's close to that section in the chapter where he talks about his son Julian. Close to the section of where he talks about God as wanting to create a story. Close to that. He has that section about his son Julian, right? And imagining how he cute he is. Yes. Okay. So it's an interesting related point. He's lovable because he is is fragile. Yeah. He goes through this thought experiment where he's like, I have this precious

three-year-old son. He's so cute. I don't want him to come to any harm. So he starts thinking of all these ways to fortify him, like make skin made out of steel and laser eyes so he can protect himself and all these different attributes. But you get to. to a certain point where then it wouldn't be his son Julian anymore. It would become a monster because our vulnerability is what makes us human. So there's also that element of it. There's something I've definitely struggled with as I've matured in college is the idea of vulnerability and the idea of community and how reliant we are on each other.

I think because our culture is so very much individualistic, like you strike out on your own, don't show weakness, show strength. And this is true also like when I contemplate my professional life of like and again, there's a proper time in place for everything. I'm not saying that you should like go to a job interview and be like, this is my deepest suffering. But I do think that there is something that we lack within our current time and place that we don't, we don't want to really be in community or really want to have to share our innermost selves to other people because we think it's somehow wrong or makes us worthy of abandonment. Yeah. It's so vital to human experience to have a community, to have a support system, to a people who can provide for you, who you in turn provide for. I mean, that's how we thrive best. I think we're a culture that's terrified of getting hurt. At least from what I've seen on social media, like so many people, they bring their relationship or friendship problems, and the fastest solution is cut them out. Cut them out. You don't need those kinds of people in your life. I'm going no contact with my parents. And there's just that attitude is so prevalent. And I, of course, that's not to say that in certain abusive situations, like, you should cut things off. If someone is being parasitic, then that relationship should not still exist.

But I do think a lot of the times what I see as examples of people being worthy of being cut off is, like, they showed human weakness. They had flaws. You brought something to them and they didn't know exactly how to respond or what to do with it. And it's like, well, yeah, they're imperfect. And so are we. That's the thing. Like we're humans. We hurt each other because we're so fallen. And it just really strikes me that the typical response to that that's advocated online is, oh, you should just step away from that completely and just like be your atomized self instead of trying to work

through it with the other person. I was thinking about this exactly this morning when I was brushing my teeth. I was thinking about how everyone is a burden. And I know that that sounds like a horrible thing to say, but it's too, everyone is a burden. You have to like help you to step out of yourself, help other people out and deal with their nonsense. The fact of the matter is that people also deal with your nonsense. So true. That's what defines us. And that's kind of what we were talking about before is how we are made to strive.

We're made to suffer and then to overcome. And if we're if we don't have those day-to-day challenges with dealing with people, how do we grow? How do we become fully alive? How do we become fully virtuous people if we're not putting up with everyone else's nonsense? And also if no one's putting up with your nonsense, like you're just an island then. And then you're basically, what's the point of, I mean, just being is just so much more miserable at that. Yeah, people will be like, oh, I don't want to be a burden. And I've thought this way too. But like, excuse me, are you God?

Yeah. I had to ask myself that before. Like, you, like, you asking for help is you being human. Yes. You know, like, there is no one who has it perfectly together, doesn't struggle with anything, you know, never makes mistakes and never has to bring that to other people. And I would even say God himself became a burden. He became a baby. He did. And he honestly, his commandments are really burdensome too. So you can't even say that God is unproblematic. And that's not me being blasphemous or anything. It's just me like stating the fact that, you know, we all have to rely on each other. In a sense, God in some sense depends upon us. And that's burdensome to us. So you can't ever escape this burden problem. That's the whole, that's the good thing. Yeah. Like, oh, I don't want to be inconvenient. Jesus Christ. Inconvee. He mediates to his parents so much. He lived in Mary's body for nine months. That is what babies do. We all did that. We were all freeloaders for many more than nine months.

What did they have to do after? They had to leave to Egypt because Herod was feeling murderous. They had to pack up everything and go to a different country. And then they come back and Jesus leaves and they have to like chase after Jesus for like nights and nights and like find him in the temple. And what do they get in response? I'm about my father's business. They went through the ringer.

There's a reason they're saints, guys. So true. But the point is like, there is no virtue in like being an inconvenient. There's no virtue in convenience. Right. And you know, like making everything as comfortable as possible. That's just not how life works. Yeah.

And that's exactly the point that Peterson is making is, you know, the universe being is this cat. This cat that is, it's happening. that you're here. It's kind of distant in a sense. It's not always going to treat you well, right? But at the end of the day, it is a good thing. And it is exactly this being, this tragic being that you are put in against your own, not against your own will, but without your own consent, that's going to push you to be good. Yeah. And yeah, there is a goodness, even in the tragedies that befall us, partly because we learn from them, mostly because we learned from them, I think. But like, you know, they make us stronger and they make us wiser.

Like, I feel like the way that I was able to love people after I was awakened to, like, death as a reality is different from being in childhood innocence. And there's a place for childhood innocence, but there's kind of a phase where you assume that everyone in your life is eternal. Like, you don't think, like, that this, anything isn't a guarantee. It's a huge shock when you realize that that's not the case, but it changes the way that you think of like every single person in your life because you're like, they're not going to be here forever. And it makes you like really sad sometimes in advance,

but it also it makes you want to cherish them as much as possible while you have them. And also that you're not going to be here forever. Yeah, there's that. That's another story altogether is like, I will not feel, I will not be in this life forever. I won't be in this phase of life forever. How can I live this life, I don't like this cliche, but how do I live it most fully seizing every opportunity and becoming that person that I'm meant to be because I only have this short period of time to do? Even if you live for 110 years, that's still such a short period of time. It's a fraction of the time that human beings have lived on the earth. Exactly. So I think once you realize the finiteness. Yeah, finiteness. Of all of being that we can see at least,

then that's when you truly begin to appreciate it and all that it involves because, okay, fine, you hate Mondays, but you don't know how many Mondays you have left in your life. And every Monday is a gift. So true. So. Yeah. Okay. We don't have a lot of time left.

But I wanted to ask you, you know, given that we only have so many days left on the earth. And we've talked a lot about wanting to make the most of it. what do you think are the most important things to prioritize? Like what does that look like? What specifically are we making the most out of? Ooh, that's a really good question because it's a very broad statement. I sometimes like to, something that I did this summer was I wrote a eulogy for myself. Wow.

Which I know sounds really morbid, but I wrote a eulogy of how do I want to be remembered? And then trying to from time to time check in with that eulogy and think, if I were, God forbid, died now, would this eulogy be something that people would say about me. Like what people actually say that I was kind, that I was hospitable, that I made them feel welcomed and loved. And if that's not true, then I need to, like, shift gears a little bit or a lot bit and try to create those habits of being the person that I want to be so that I'm putting out into the world what it is that I want to.

People are receiving the gift that is myself. And also, in turn, I'm receiving thousands of gifts every day, people that I interact with. So I think that mostly human relationship and understanding yourself and human relationship in a non-selfish way, just in like a how am I interacting in the world kind of way, is really important. And I think also going back to gratitude, finding as many reasons as possible, even if it's just waking up or going to bed and finding even just three reasons to be grateful. If that's the bare minimum, that's all you can do, that's what you should do that because there is so, so, so much. It's like that Sefschleeder song, like counting my blessings. I can't

count that high. I mean, if you were really, really in tune to everything, you wouldn't be able to thank God for everything that you possibly could. So as much as it occurs to you, be grateful. That's really beautiful. Thank you. And what a beautiful note to end on. Guys, this has been one last ride on the Healing Hour radio show. And if you listen to all of our episodes, you're now fully healed. You are now fully healed. We have fixed you completely. It's so true. They said it couldn't be done. be done. But on a more serious note, reading this chapter in light of everything that's been happening to Jordan Peterson lately is kind of, I mean, crazy to bear in mind with the illness and

the suffering that he's had to phase over and over again. And he and his family are like going through it, going through the ringer another time. I don't know. It's just, I just, I really want to wish the best for them. I don't know if they will ever hear this, but we at Hillsdale College, all the students, we are pulling for them and praying for them. And we hope God sends them as many cats as possible in this time and that they make it through the other side. Amen to that, Erica. Amen. Thank you.

And thank you all for being such devoted listeners. We're very grateful. Much love. Signing off one more time. This has been The Healing Hour on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM.