I'm sure many of you think inspiring romantic thoughts of the cowboy life. I once did and still do. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy what I do, but my naivete has been waining over the last five years as I have discovered a great truth: No matter what you do in life, it eventually becomes work. One of my favorite speakers, Ravi Zacharias often quotes G.K. Chesterton saying, "meaninglessness does not come from being weary of pain, rather meaninglessness comes from being weary of pleasure". As I wrote before in a previous post, I used to watch people drive by on I-70 and think, "suckers stuck in the rat race." The task at hand yesterday made me feel very ratlike.
To pelvic check or not pelvic check? That's not a question, but a necessity unless you enjoy chasing a frantic heifer at 2 a.m. in January with half a calf stuck out of her back end . Pelvic checking is done to ensure that a heifer will have enough room to heave one out. Although this doesn't guarantee that you will never have to, in the words of Roscoe P. Coltrane, be in hot pursuit and assist the poor struggling first time mother, it does help decrease the chances of that late night rendezvous with the calf puller and very cold hands.
The ratness of pelvic checking is the monotony. We did 135 heifer yearlings yesterday and that took about 6 hours. The routine goes like this. The heifer gets in the chute, George (the vet) measures her, we do the math, old ear tags are cut off, if she's big enough Kirk writes down her weight, #, measurement, etc., I vaccinate her, deworm her, and give her a new tag. Kirk also takes a chunk of her ear that is sent off to a lab to see if she is P.I. positive (persistently infected w/B.V.D. (bovine viral diarrhea)) (Is it grammatically correct to have this many parentheses?)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))Anywho, I know that I have probably lost you by now so I'll stop with the details. My point is that I don't see how some can do the same thing over and over, day in and day out. Part of what I love about this job is the variety. One day we are horseback. The other I might be putting up hay. I have a friend who works at a GM assembly plant. He says his job varies day to day, but there are guys there who do the same thing every day and they've been doing it for twenty years. We all dream about what our life would be like if we had this career, lived in this location, had this house, or whatever our little hearts can imagine other than what we have. This idea of greener grass has pervaded the hearts of mankind through out the ages. Paul writes, "...for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, to be content." Evidently the only cure is a learned one. Apparently these assembly line fellas have learned this lesson, or they are scared of change. Either way I have found the joy in the balance. I do enjoy a change of the routine, yet there is something to be said for a little stick-with-it-ness. (Is that a word? It is now). Once again, Paul sums it up best. "Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing God: And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance; for ye serve the Lord Christ."
