Rays of Light

Photo Credit Flickr

My favorite college professor used to relay the most unpleasant events of history with great animation. He would then playfully tell us “That’s the way it was. If you don’t like it, you can just go butt a stump!” I’ve never seen anyone foolhardy enough to do this, but I did watch my drunken step-father once butt heads with an old goat. You would’ve had to been there to fully appreciate the comical skirmish so I’ll jump straight to its conclusion; the goat cleaned his clock. It seems that even docile goats can get quite aggressive when provoked.

The embarrassing defeat never dampened his love of head-butting though. I doubt he ever locked heads with another four-legged grass-eater, but he continued to derive pleasure from butting heads with me (and everyone else) every chance he got. If anyone knew how to get my goat, he did!

Being a control-freak, he found those head-to-head conflicts to be an exhilarating way to boost his own ego, but I became more frustrated with each passing day. Then someone gave me a very wise piece of advice. She told me, “He can’t get your goat if you don’t tell him where you keep it tied.” She was right. With this little nugget of wisdom I was able to turn the tables.

After all these years I have never forgotten this and have, in fact, tried to instill the concept in my children. Unfortunately, they still haven’t quite figured it out. Frustrating as this is, it is certainly understandable. You see, it really irks me when……oops, I almost led you to one of my goats. Never mind.

More to the point, I don’t tend to make New Year’s resolutions because frankly, I’m never disciplined enough to follow-through on them for more than a day or two. Even so, I have realized lately that I have allowed a few people to find out where my own goats are tied and have therefore resolved to fix this little faux pas before any serious problems arise.

After all, there is a reason I keep certain of my goats tethered in the first place; they are not docile and it doesn’t take much to rile them. Some of these goats used to graze peacefully in the meadows of nonchalant but after a season of agitation, they became a bit aggressive and had to be constrained. I prefer to keep them that way.

You may ask, “Why don’t you just get rid of them altogether?” Truthfully, not all goats are bad; some merely need to be tamed. They can be very useful for refining us and teaching us to respond properly to adverse stimuli.

No matter how careful I am, someone always manages to get one of my goats at some point. So, I can either choose to butt heads with them, or I can take the higher road and cultivate the wisdom of Proverbs 19:11 The discretion of a man maketh him slow to anger; And it is his glory to pass over a transgression.

Admittedly, I sometimes butt heads instinctively, but I am working toward the latter. I won’t call it a New Year’s resolution since I’m not very successful with those, but I am continuing to strive toward greater long-suffering. Others may choose to be confrontational but from now on, I don’t plan to join them.

Hey, if they don’t like that they can “just go butt a stump!”