Tethered, Peru

The half-sheared ewe ran passionately toward the end of her tether only to be flipped hooves-over-head each time without fail. Her nose drove into the rocky soil each time the leash sprang taught, yet moments later, after gathering her senses and sneezing from the mild concussion, she bounded in the opposite direction, meeting the other end of the tether with the same, sorry results. Sadly, her young lamb studiously observed its mother´s valiant escape efforts and, consequently, mimicked her determination with its own dashing attempts at freedom. Of course, the rope and stake held. Its face was similarly squashed.

Crouched on the side of the road, I confusedly watched this spectacle unfold until finally, the tanned, crippled old woman carrying a bushel of weeds on her back came to chastise her incompetent stock, growing more incompetent with each leap. Once relocated to a less stressful, more padded patch of pasture, I began to reflect.

Like these sheep, I feel a certain desire to spring forth from the confines imposed by one tether or another. I don´t blame them for blindly storming certain defeat with reckless ambition because however deep the stake or strong the rope, there´s always the potential that, with enough determination, the tether might snap, leaving an unobstructed course on which we can bleat triumphantly.

For the time being, my tethers are limited to trivial guages of cotton thread, the likes of which are effortlessly snapped with no more than a slight pedal stroke. Others, including the majority of folks I encounter on this adventure, are bound by industrial-strength chains. Yet, even with such magnificent burdens, they run, headlong, to the end of their tether, each time coming up with dusty noses. Through delusional sneezes, they fervently pursue the other end with amplified intensity, only to be driven into the rocky soil, time and time again.

My insides sink to unfathomable depths as I watch this struggle from atop a comfortable, leather saddle. My sentiments are lightened only by a profound respect for incomprehensible determination. The greatness that I witness reduces me to nothing more than the dust on their noses. As the road winds on, I hope to be broken each time I see courageous people striving for betterment, one impossibly desperate leap at a time.