Until the cows…

Cows. Just great. I come here looking for timely insight that will potentially launch me in an exciting new direction…and this guy is writing about cows. Doesn’t he know that I am busy, stressed, frazzled, and a bit dazed from staring at this screen for hours? Really. I have places to go, things to do, people to see, more coffee to consume, etc.  

Earth to blog-posting person: I need something clear, something quick, something practical that I can take with me into my hectic day. Okay. 

And I suppose he is going to tell me about the cows coming home, or whatever that old expression is. Why should I care if the cows are coming home or going away or taking an all-expense paid trip to the moon? Oopeli, as they say in Quebec – and no, that is not a nasty word. I mean, no offence to any of my farmer or rancher friends, but what exactly is the connection between career and life direction and the homeward movement of a group of bellowing cows? It beats me.     

Sure, I can enjoy a peaceful country scene as much as the next guy, complete with sheep, horses, goats and even the occasional old school cow. But what is the point, monsieur blogger? What?

Wait a minute. It is all about the speed, isn’t it? Those bovines are in no hurry at all to get home, are they? They’re slow. It isn’t like we are talking about the cheetah’s coming home or the great danes or even about jack rabbits. That’s right. We measure horse-power but not cow-power. Water buffalo might make the trip in a hurry, but cows – they seem to take forever. That’s it. Folks who grew up on farms and would have been quite familiar with waiting and waiting and waiting for those ornery cows. Some creatures are known, I guess, for just being painfully slow. Turtles, sloths…cows. 

Bombardier will likely never paint a picture of a cow on the side of their new jet airplanes, and surely not a picture of a cow on its way home. 

There. I got it. I need to go faster. Stronger, smarter, faster – mostly faster; that will be my motto from now on. Tres vite! More frantic activity. More energy drinks. Stronger coffee. More compulsive texting. More shallow relationships. More running around at the speed of sound or light or whatever that particle is called that goes even faster. Extra zip and zing; that is what I really need right now. If only I had gained this marvellous insight earlier. Such an epiphany. This is going to be great.  Must make up for lost time. Has anybody seen my Blackberry? 

Then again, Old Macdonald, back on his farm, seemed happier than most people nowadays. I hate to mix up old expressions and songs and everything, but maybe there is a connection here. There he was singing happily about some cantankerous old cows that finally make it home. They made it home, those cows – after all. One way or another. Step by step.   

And why not a reflection on that old expression about a certain hot place freezing over or the one about the coming of a long-awaited kingdom? Those expressions seem to be saying the same thing, don’t they? For the implication is that neither is ever, ever going to happen, or at least not for a very long time. How someone could know that, aside from Someone in charge, is beyond me. 

But in this case, in this expression, there is a sense of hope and a sense of direction mixed together with feelings of frustration. What the cows lack in speed and finesse they make up for in direction and determination. They have a goal. There they are. Plodding. Moving forward. Towards the end of the day. Heading home.

They focused on a goal, and they made it. They finally made it home. 

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