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Soft Shoulder Advice
Blog #90 By Michelle
Drew June 7 2006
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Reader Comment (by way of Gene
Barber, Peaceful Mariner Extraordinaire)
Mornin' Gene.
Just have to say I was very saddened to find "Rodeo"
pictures in
your newsletter. I did appreciate Michelle's (the woman
who took the
pictures) views on war and peace and women. I did not
expect to
find such pictures matched with anti-war sentiments.
Rodeo, as it
stands today, is war against animals. For one thing,
the
calf-roping. Let us ask ourselves: "How would I like to be
of
toddler age
and be aggressively pursued, roped around my neck,
slammed down
on the ground, and have my legs and arms tied together."
It would
horrify us to do this to a human and yet we do it to
animals, the
innocent, voiceless ones. For years the animal rights
organizations
have been trying to transform Rodeo, to have
calf-roping
and other inhumane events removed. There would still be
a way to
showcase these great creatures without having them suffer,
<>and the
tradition of the west would still be honored.
Would not
peace, kindness, aloha, compassion, whatever you want to call it,
fulfill its
highest purpose were it offered to all the Creation?
For me,
animals have been best friends, healers, and, dare I say,
teachers.
To see them treated with such epic disrespect is a great
heartbreak
and in my opinion an insult to God. It must stop.
Respectfully,
[Name Withheld]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear NW;
Thanks for writing in and expressing your opinion. I am in agreement
about rodeo animals
being exploited. Isn't that true of all animals? Why do humans think
that it is alright to
ride horses, have oxen pull their plows, race Greyhounds and Akitas?
And what about
wild animals taught to perform at circuses, or on display in zoos?
The easy answer, for some is that we are on top of the food chain, so
we can. Animals
work for us, feed us, comfort us and protect us. Some would say that
their roles as stated
above, are what they were put on earth for. Others, like you and myself
cringe.
HOWEVER, this is exploitation, not war. War is a product of hate, of
power and control
meant to hurt and/or destroy an identified enemy. This, in my opinion,
is a cultural difference.
Circus, rodeo and dog racing people consider themselves animal lovers.
People who hunt
and fish are appreciative of the animals that provide nourishment and
sustain life.
The purpose of this blog is multicultural understanding. The goal is
the understanding,
tolerance and acceptance of the differences and similarities amoung us.
Rodeo's are
part of the culture out here in Wyoming. To attend a rodeo is to learn
about what others
find entertaining.
Did I enjoy the rodeo? Because no animals or people were hurt that
day, it did make
it possible for me to appreciate it. Would it be on a list of
activities that I do again?
Maybe, but probably not. I don't attend circuses with animals, ride
horses or make
animals pull loads for me. I don't attend dog or horse races either.
I do attend ballet regularly, inspite of the fact that ballerinas are
so starved that
most of them don't menstruate. And also in spite of the fact that the
male ballet
dancers have costumes that completely cover their crotches while the
females
nearly always have costumes that contain less than 6 inches of leotard
between
the audience and their most intimate privacies.
It is wonderful when people recognize and stand up for exploitation of
any kind.
But it is also important that we respect each others' cultures. Writing
in as you
did is a positive way to expose exploitation. Insinuating that rodeo
riders are
war mongers is not only untrue and inflammatory, but it takes the focus
off the
actual issue of the cruelty of calf roping.
Let us not fall into the trap of thinking that we need to destroy that
which is
different than our own culture. THAT, my friend, is war.
Michelle
All
Good Thoughts
Somehow I
can't believe that there are any heights that can't be scaled by a man
who knows the secrets of making dreams come true. This special secret -
curiosity, confidence, courage, and constancy, and the greatest of all
is confidence. When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way,
implicitly and unquestionable.
Walt Disney
Fear
of serious injury cannot alone justify suppression of free speech and
assembly. Men feared witches and burned women. It is the function of
speech to free men from the bondage of irrational fears.
Justice
Louis Brandeis
I
don't think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.
Abraham
Lincoln
Inspirational Reading
A
MIRACLE MORNING
In her poem
"Aurora Leigh," Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote:
Earth's
crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God; But only he
who sees, takes off his shoes, The rest sit round it and pluck
blackberries.
I have
certainly plucked my share of blackberries, blind to what wonder
there is in life. But on occasion I have also had my eyes opened by
others, a bit more sensitive and aware. I cherish those moments
and recall them when life gets too routine and ordinary. I'll never
forget one such moment.
I stumbled
out the door of a mountain cabin where I was spending the weekend
working with youth and their families at a rustic retreat center. I had
a 6:30 a.m. appointment to keep and squinted from the early autumn sun
peeking over pine-blanketed mountaintops.
"Today is a
miracle!" spoke a young, enthusiastic voice behind me. I turned
toward the radiant face of my teen-aged friend.
"How?" I
asked her. I wasn't sure if I could handle any excitement this early in
the morning.
"Think about
it," she smiled. "The sun rose, didn't it?"
"Yeah." I
found it easy to hide any enthusiasm. It seemed to rise on every
other morning without any help from me.
"That's a
miracle! It is miraculous that the earth turns as it does. At night,
the sun goes down and in the morning it rises. It just happens!"
I pretty much
had this figured out years ago, I thought, as I rubbed sleep from my
eyes. I was also busy thinking about how to get a cup of coffee.
"And look at
the mountains! Covered with trees and grass, they look so beautiful.
And there," she pointed, "a valley. It's all a miracle!"
"What have I
stumbled into?" I thought. "And where is the coffee?"
"Wildflowers
blooming," she continued. "It all smells so fresh and clean and so
good." She took a deep breath. Her blue eyes sparkled. "All of
nature receives water and light. Things grow and blossom --
it is all so beautiful."
Maybe it
wasn't coffee I needed...but whatever she had gotten into! I didn't
know if it was her bubbly personality or the freshness of the
morning, but I began to sense her enchantment with the daybreak. A
little, anyway. Somehow, she had me believing that the day did hold a
certain magic.
Then, with a
smile that seemed to make her blonde curls laugh, she gave her
pronouncement a note of finality. "And best of all, it will happen
again tomorrow. And the next day! And the next!" She sighed. "It's a
miracle morning!"
My young
friend showed wisdom beyond her years. For her, earth was "crammed with
heaven" and "every bush afire." She should never want for happiness,
for she had already learned, at such an early age, to find wonder in
the commonplace and to feel gratitude for the ordinary. If each
day for her is a miracle, then a lifetime will be no less than a
marvelous extravaganza!
Steve Goodier
www.lifesupportsystem.com
