Consumed by the Assumed!
‘Lying down… every single one of them… how odd… a little surreal… even eerie!’
These were my thoughts on reaching the turning point of my run. I paused looking across a field scattered with cows, but on this early morning, they were all lying down. With the thick blanket of fog, dawn hadn’t really sprung at all, and it was still twilight. The cows clearly had no intention of getting up early this morning!
It reminded me of a Far Side greeting card by Gary Larson, which had challenged my assumption that all cows do is eat grass. I had never really considered what they do at night?
‘Sir, you’ve had your haircut’… ‘Sir, I saw you in the supermarket yesterday’… are a couple of comments I’ve heard many times over the years as a teacher. ‘Yes… I do have a haircut like everybody else… yes, I do buy food and eat like everybody else…’ would often be the thoughts in my mind.
I guess for the students who made these comments, they’d never really considered what teachers do outside of the classroom. I guess in the same way that I’d never really thought about what cows do at night. We both had simply assumed and were a little taken aback to find our assumptions challenged.
It dawned on me with the same fogginess that had engulfed my run that morning, that I too had been consumed by the storyline of doom and gloom portrayed in the media about this second lockdown. I seem to have been gently coerced and allowed myself to sleepwalk into a state of resignation.
Perhaps, I might take an alternative approach. I might be simply guided by what I experience and take it at face value, and not be consumed by what is assumed in the media.
chrisbarkermindfulness.com
In displaying the attached artwork of Gary Larson, I acknowledge his work and thank Bing images for sharing this freely via this link: https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=free+images+gary+larson+cartoons+cows&id=B30E840D2DE777453330BF4C9F906F5C3C973CA5&form=IQFRBA&first=1&scenario=ImageBasicHover