Clump of Comfort

“How can you have your horse and cow living together?  I tried it once and my horse just chased and bit my cows.”  Russ Johnson

Clump of Comfort

“They’re totally buddies.”  My daughter said to me as she watched our horse and one of our cows frolicking in the South Field together.

It was a different scene as was driving past my neighbor’s cattle herd this morning and saw hundreds of black furred Angus lying in a massive clump.  It is so like these creatures to be huddled together.  They rarely wander outside of their group too far.  They feel comfortable together.

Then I came home.  I looked out to see “34,” one of our steers, eating side by side with his buddy, Fifteen Bucks, our tall and grand Thoroughbred Horse.  They eat together, sleep together, and love to run and buck in unison.  It’s a quite unusual.

I looked a little further out and saw the other cows all bunched up.  34 knows they’re not too far away.  He just chooses not to hang with them all the time.  I can only guess that he likes to do some of the same things his friend “Buck” does.  But, the real question in my mind today is:  What was it that caused them to come together as friends? Doesn’t everybody prefer to hang with their own kind?

I remember when my friend John Garrity told me that I was lucky to have found my “tribe.”  What he meant by that was that I was much younger than he was when he discovered what he wanted to do professionally.  I’ve thought about that comment now for more than thirty-five years.  But, these days I’m thinking in a little different way.

I think of the diverse group of people I share my life with.  They’re male & female, and of different race, religion, nationality and profession.  As a result, I’ve been able to learn things that would have otherwise never entered my mind.  And, I’ve enjoyed experiences that I value more than I can say.

I was working in Hungary once when the interpreter with me said, “You’re a fast learner.”  She was referring to the way I was able to catch on to local customs so people we were meeting with would be comfortable.  I’m a better man because of this kind of knowledge gained through personal interaction.

So, my question to you is, “Are you living in a clump of comfort?”

The cattle I drove past today are spending their lives clump in comfort.  But you and I don’t have to live that way.  We can come together with the thoroughbreds around us and get increased joy from learning new things from them.  Sure, we may look at each other and know that we’ll never become the sleek, tall, strong, beautiful, exotic creatures others are.  But, we’ll be all the better for having associated with them. 

Always remember that to the members of other tribes you and I are exotic.  A guide I once worked with in China said, “The local ginger is never spicy enough!”  It is a local saying they use to describe the human tendency to want to stand out within the crowd we live in.

Use this tendency to your advantage.  Leave a clumped life behind and live with the standouts.  It will spice up your life.