Goats, Books, and Nomads

The imagination is the real nomad.  Books are its goats.

HB

Nomads and goats often come as a package deal. A symbiotic bundle. An interdependent two-fer.  The goats, for their participation in the relationship, mostly get protection from predators, along with some helpful midwifery when they have kids. Also their sores and hoof-troubles are tended to.  As for the nomads, eventually they get meat, and from day to day, milk. And from the milk they make curds and cheese. Plus as anyone knows who has spent any time with goats, goats serve as entertainment units. They're fun to watch and interact with. 

There are good reasons to emulate nomads. For instance, nomads are indefatigable walkers, and we should all probably walk more than we do. Nomads play flutes and drums. More of us should play flutes and drums. Nomads generally have only a few changes of beautiful clothes, and when it comes to possessions of all kinds (not just clothes) “few-but-beautiful” really is a good all-around philosophy.  Finally, nomads are always out in the wind and weather; adopting their closeness to the elements would do us good as well. Not only would we be healthier, but also we would probably treat the earth better if we knew where it was. (Hint: look underfoot and around.) 

I think that dissatisfaction in life can often be summed up by saying we feel stuck. Hemmed in. Can't. Move.  Not without losing the house. Not without giving up the job. Not without setting aside your pride. Not without, not without...What to do? Well, emulate a nomad and move on of course! Though there we sometimes need goading, reminding, and  inspiration. 

Which is where the goats come in: goats that are like books, books that are like goats. Goats, mind you, remind their herder-nomads that hey the pastures here in this location are cropped as far down as they can go. "It's dryyyyy heeeere," they say out loud. "Aaaall the grass is eeeeaten." And so on. They bleat. They insist. They suck in their stomachs to show their ribs. They stop giving milk. Finally their nomads move on. 

Well, the best books can do the same good services for us. They can alert us to what's wrong. They can tell us it's time to change. They can inspire us to move on. Take Walden for instance. Walden is pretty much a lead goat for me. For instance:

When we consider...what are the true necessaries and means of life, it appears as if men had deliberately chosen the common mode of living because they preferred it to any other. Yet they honestly think there is no choice left. But alert and healthy natures remember that the sun rose clear. It is never too late to give up our prejudices. No way of thinking or doing, however ancient, can be trusted without proof.

Now, when you're feeling that general sense of stuckness in life, how could you possibly ask for more inspiring words, or anything better suited to opening your mind to new possibilities: ones not necessarily more ambitious in the worldly sense, but tending much more toward human happiness and flourishing?

So. What are you reading these days? What goat of a book is leading you on, to new pastures of mind and soul? And hey, just as playful coda, here are a few other ways that books are like goats:

• They both demand your time. Lots of it. It takes time to milk a goat. It takes time to milk a book.
• Both books and goats love a good view. Just look at bookshelves, where all the books stand and look out as far as they can... And goats, well they'll climb positively anything.
• Neither a goat nor a book cares what you think of it. Which is part of what makes both goats and books so valuable as critics.

HB