The grass is always greener...

I was driving through a rural area late last summer and came upon a farm fence line with a goat's head sticking out of it. "Hey, look at that goat..." I said with no real point other than the mere observance. Have you ever been envious of an animals body part? Birds have wings, elephants have trunks, fish have gills... you imagine how cool it would be to have something like that for a short time until you realize the extent by which you would be considered a freak and your life would be marred by a never-ending struggle to conform to society's mold of whatever a human is supposed to look like despite pulling off the potentially super hero like actions that having such freakish abilities would allow. (man I love run on sentences, don't you? forget it Microsoft Word paper clip cartoon guy! I'm not changing it, you can make it green all you want... get your own blog!) Well, goats... as you may or may not know have horns. Not all of them do, but this little man did. And if you're going to stick your head through a fence you better be prepared for the consequences. Alas, he was not. His head was stuck there. Those horns said, slow down there man, you are staying right here. Well, it took me and another person a good 20 minutes to calculate a way of freeing this goat. (yes, I stopped and helped, why? oh, like you wouldn't!) And he was not happy. Fact is when you stick your head and horns through a fence it happens pretty easy, getting back out hurts though. A lot. A tear came to the eye of all when that little dude happily took off and ran to be with his other goat friends who had since abandoned him, whom no doubt are still laughing about the incident. You know how goats are! (hey Billy, remember that time you said you were gonna get some GOOD grass (snicker) and you... sidebar: Give me a sec, I just realized I named my goat Billy, too funny) Well, you might think that's the end of this story, but it isn't! Two weeks later, I come down the same road and what do I see? Same fence, same goat, same hole... same horns. I don't drive that road much in the winter time, and for all I know the second time didn't teach him much either. (the second rescue was actually harder than the first) But I was thinking about my goat friend the other day. Not only was he possibly stuck right now and how much of a bummer that would be for him, but also about how there was this huge pasture of grass, green as the day is long and my man was not content with that grass, no. He wanted more. He wanted the unattainable. The good life. His present circumstances were just not enough for him. He had to have the grass on the other side of the fence. The tastier grass. The bright shiny, candy like grass! Maybe he was tired of eating where the less discerning goats would drop their business, which is reasonable, I know I would be. But even when he realized that going for that life was not really a good idea, he couldn't help himself. He had to go back again. Perhaps he thought this time it would be different. But we as humans have the thinking ability and the wisdom to see the possible pitfalls of going after things which are beyond our means. But we actually choose not to use it. We know how this movie is going to end and yet we watch it anyway. We've even read the book! (don't you hate it when people say the book is better than the movie? I don't know how this is possible. books take a lot of time to read and I can see a movie in like 90 minutes. which is much better by my calculations. we get it, you like to read, relax nerd) But we can't help ourselves. Statistics are such that any potential reader of this insanity is over extended in credit. Perhaps living a life that his means do not allow. Here where I live there are some MESSED UP homes. I'm not kidding when I say this. Some people live in some nasty places. But you know what, they all have satellite TV! The good life. Not that $50 a month is some extravagance, but couple that with the beer and cigarettes and I'm thinking a home upgrade is possible sooner than later. But I'm no math expert. We don't ever like what we have as much as what we don't have. Perhaps this is the true human nature. Don't get me wrong I'm not immune to this I want that mentality either. I actually have things that I can't/couldn't afford. I have done myself wrong financially but still found a way to have toys. I have no real measure of discipline in this regard. Yes friends, I've stuck my own head through the fence more than once. At times somebody helped me get my head out, other times I sat there in my misery wondering if some wiser, higher thinking, non-horned man would come along and help me, but nobody came. Eventually I busted a horn off and vowed not to it again. But I did. So the question remains: Will I ever be smarter than a goat? We can only answer that for ourselves...


--finn

(no goats were harmed in the writing of this blog post, well not bad anyways)