Life Lessons from the Sheriff

“Life is not always green grass, sunshine, peaceful rivers, and fat cattle.  It seems to me that, more and more, there are droughts, blizzards, floods, and fires.  I don’t know if the world is experiencing unprecedented change or if the naivety and ambition of my youth is fading into a somber reality of how the world truly is.  I tend to think the latter.  After all, Solomon told us 3000 years ago there’s nothing new under the sun.

But that’s an awfully dour way to live life.  I think of the quote, most famously attributed to John Wayne: ‘When the road looks rough ahead, remember the Man Upstairs and the word Hope. Hang on to both and tough it out.’ “

Quote by Bob Welch, editor of American Cowboy magazine, when in the April 2014 issue he began a discussion of the suffering that occurred in last fall’s blizzard to the Cattle Ranchers of the Dakotas and Wyoming.  I can’t imagine.

But I certainly see a grand metaphor of life right there in those two paragraphs.  Wisdom.

I’m not sure when naivety slipped away and dour slipped in, but it did somewhere over my 45 years.  Now I’m just wise enough to know only how damn little I know, or ever did.  It’s a wonder.  Especially in my youth.

But sure as the world will turn at least one more time, I’m finding the riddle involves not only knowing Hope is there, but also figuring out how to enjoy the suffering and perseverance required to comprehend it.

I think I’ll keep my subscription.

Thanks Bob.