Throw yourself like a Border Collie
Engaging in some serious coach-ordered rest, I went to see the Soldier Hollow Classic Sheepdog Championship with Jessica. I found it such a refreshing mental breeze to watch these dogs rocket about, especially in light of the continuing agonies of New Orleans.
Watching a sheepdog championship live, wow! Its so HARD what they ask these dogs to do! Me on my mountain bike with Jessica yelling directions, we would do far worse! The crucial difference between the owners & the dog though, is that the owners are competing, the dog is in the moment of work & accomplishing what they were bred to do, they are dogs being dogs 100% fulfilled. I wish I were more like a dog sometimes, unaware of winning and losing, just aware of being a DOG!!! Aware of just velocity and the pleasure of the chase & the job.
These pictures are of Bess, a 10 year old female Border Collie from Colorado, with her well-trained human Tony Stewart. Bess has some top level dog medals in her paws and was 3rd of 145 dogs (!!) at nationals last year and 2nd in this event last year of the 50 dogs entered. In my best race at nationals last year I finished 12th of 28!! Ha! The herding dog world is far more competitive than the human speedskating world, Bess & Tony probably train more hours than I do too. This was not a 100% successful run for this duo, although they qualified for the final round, and you can see it in Tony’s expression in the final picture. But look how Bess trots! Ahhhh! To be a dog fulfilled!
The following poem is by Miguel De Unamuno, (translated by Robert Bly) I am not sure why this moved me after seeing Border Collies tearing around so happy & focused, but somehow, it truly fit the mood of the day…
Throw Yourself Like Seed
Shake off this sadness, and recover your spirit;
Sluggish you will never see the wheel of fate
That brushes your heel as it turns going by,
The man who wants to live is the man in whom life is abundant.Now you are only giving food to that final pain
Which is slowly winding you in the nets of death,
But to live is to work, and the only thing which lasts
Is the work, start then, turn to the work.Throw yourself like a seed as you walk, and into your own field,
don’t turn your face for that would be to turn it to death
and do not let the past weigh down your motion.Leave what’s alive in the furrow, what’s dead in yourself,
for life does not move in the same way as a group of clouds
from your work you will be able one day to gather yourself.
Filed under: Quotes, from home
5 Responses to “Throw yourself like a Border Collie”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
As a Basque do you think Unamundo was inspired by these little dogs with big hearts?
either that or he was inspired by their huge brains!!
these are some of the smartest dogs around, most border collies have 200+ word vocabularies…
reminds me of my favorite border collie joke
Q: how many border collies does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Just one, but while changing the light bulb, he will also check the rest of the wiring in the house to make sure it’s up to code..
I’ll have to tell that one to my father, the electrician. We have a border collie that rolls over dead when you ask if he’d rather be an Aggie or rather be dead. He’s the best dog until a storm comes along. Then he thinks he’s a five pound lap dog.
Unamuno was a great writer and an early feminist whether or not he thought so. Check out Niebla. He and Ortega y Gasset vied with each other for top dog in Spanish literature and philosphy. Spain is an amazing country. And Nadal has some growing up to do (non sequitur).
Any Briards in the herding?
And where is the new Lore stuff?
Peggy
Nice pics of Bess and my Dad. Bess is getting a little old now, can’t hear so well anymore. Still has a huge heart though. I hope I can get back into Border Collies some time in the next couple years.