An unknown rooster showed up in my brother’s barnyard last
winter. “Chicken” as he is now called,
is a good-looking bird with a yellow neck, flowing dark green tail, and a
handsome red comb. Knowing his beauty,
Chicken struts through the yard, helps himself to the cat’s food, enters any
door he finds open, and even goes so far as to attack the cattle.
There are two beings that Chicken respects. One is my brother who somehow managed to
impress upon Chicken’s limited intelligence that his welcome lasts only as long
as he follows certain guidelines. The other being is, of course, the
one-year-old Australian shepherd, Archie.
Archie dearly loves to run, and the only thing better than
running is chasing. Thus Chicken is a
fascinating specimen to this focused pup merely because he runs. As Archie’s legs grew and his pace quickened this
game became unfair. There is now a steadfast rule, don’t chase Chicken.
After milking chores on Thanksgiving morning we could not
find Archie anywhere. We called and
whistled to no avail. This was
misdemeanor number one. Eventually we
found him. He had caught Chicken and was systematically plucking him. Of course, chasing Chicken at all was
misdemeanor number two, and catching Chicken, was misdemeanor number three. Archie got to spend the day corralled in his
kennel with water and a blanket. A whole
day of “time-out” all because of a few minutes of very focused stolen pleasure.
Here are two things I learned:
1. It is dangerous to become too focused on one outcome. With such blinders on we lose track of what
is going on around us. We can’t see
potential consequences. We can’t even
see potential opportunity. When you feel
yourself honing into one specific position or opinion think of Archie, deaf and
blind to all but what he’s chasing. Then
take a step back. Don’t give up your
values or discredit your own opinions.
Just hold them a little more lightly.
2. Unhealthy behavior begets unhealthy behavior. The morning of this story Chicken’s tail had
finally regrown from a different Archie encounter. He felt spunky enough to think about
challenging me. Archie can resist a
chicken that stays out of his way and modestly sits on the roost until
daylight. But a crowing rooster who
saucily struts around challenging the world to a fight will most likely find more
than he bargained for in this energetic pup.
If you’re unhappy with someone else’s behavior kindly take notice of
your own before calling them to task for it!
It’s just simple story and even as I write it I wonder how
such an effort can even touch the storm of violence in our world. Perhaps it
can’t, but I write in the hope that others are also looking for metaphors in
their own contexts that help them grow in self-awareness and in kindness.
