Having finished cleaning the Rescue Barn, I was driving the tractor to the Pig Barn for the daily cleaning. Since the pigs understand that the sound of the tractor in the morning is the prelude to the wake-up call, it is not uncommon to see a couple pigs heading down to the pond of their own accord (This is a beautiful sight when you see it because it means less effort to clear the barn). On this day, however, Linus was making a march from the pond to the barn. I called out to him that he was going the wrong way, but he would not be dissuaded. He seemed to be a pig on a mission.
I will never know what Linus's objective was, but this seemed to be a deliberate act. Faced with the need to interpret it, I have chosen to believe the following. Since I spend a lot of time with the pigs making them do things that they would prefer not to do, like leaving the barn so I can clean, I try to give them treats and spend time with them to make up for it and keep our relationships in balance. The previous day, I had shared a banana with Linus by the pond in the afternoon. I like to believe that Linus was doing some sharing in return, using the only commodity he had which was the mud he had been rolling in and which he clearly liked. Viewed that way, it was a kind gesture.
Everyday, if not every hour, we are faced with a world which bombards us with similar messages where we may not always know the motives. Faced with the choice, it is all to easy to assign negative intonations to them and assume that the world and its inhabitants are crueler than they actually are. A whole other world opens up to us if we choose to view these ambiguous situations in a different light and assume the best rather than the worse. I had actually been studying this concept and it was great to see my mind starting to apply it. I know it makes me feel better and more at one with things. How about you?
