Today's Topic: The Principle of Contrast
My idea of a living death (and I guess that's why they call it prison) would be to exist in unending sameness. To have nothing but one beige day after another, with no change to experience or even look forward to...shudder, don't even want to think about it.Nope, from my list of the essential mental vitamins, vitamin C, for Contrast, is the one I order in the BIG jar. With the mega-dose tablets.
The big deal about contrast, you see, is that it heightens appreciation while it feeds the senses.
White never seems so fresh as it does after you've been wearing black all winter.
Steady work can seem like play to someone released from the stress of unemployment.
A tiny cabin can feel utterly charming compared to a huge rambling house--and vice versa.
A decrepit but steady old gelding seems like the loveliest horse on earth after 20 minutes spent dealing with a yearling stud colt.
A Saturday a.m. sleep-in is all that much more delicious after a workweek of rising at O-Dark-30.
See what I mean? That vitamin C...gotta have it.
As for the blue trailer:
Some may look at it as a sad comparison with the glorious new ones all around it.
I see it as the close first cousin to the trailer I hauled with when I first began showing on my own, as an adult, without assistance from my parents.
And from that point of view, Ol' Blue is as glorious a set of horse wheels as any that ever rolled.
Because the real contrast is with having nothing, and being forced to stay home from the party.
Any personal examples of mental vitamin C that you'd care to share?
posted by Juli Thorson @ 8:06 AM
13 comments
13 Comments:
I love this. I think that if more Americans were able to recognize this, we woulnd't be floundering because all around was the want, want, want and the "I deserve this" mentality.
I love this too, because when my sister and I got our first horse our horse trailer it had no top, was primer red and about three feet off the ground. Our horse hated it (although looking back, I think that he hated trailering alone more than the actual trailer-some horses really liked the wind blowing through their manes...) We would back up to a little hill so he wouldn't have as far to get in and out. Our next model was a little closer to old blue, and then we knew we had arrived when we got a 4 horse stock trailer with a tiny tack room in the front. We could haul other people too. Our last trailer is by far the nicest- aluminum gooseneck with a walk in tack room and four horse with drop down windows and automatic waters in the stalls. It has been invaluable as we started our 4H club and we've needed two trailers to haul everyone. But if push came to shove, we could downsize back to our grey stock trailer (that we still have and use). It makes me chuckle to think about the progression we made- from a two horse bucket of rust that the horse didn't even like, and one horse to having mulitple trailers and twenty somethings horses at the farm...I don't think that my parents quite knew what they were getting themselves into...but I am grateful for it.
We live in the midst of professional horsemen's ranches. There are trainers of reiners, cutters, racers, and even polo ponies are all around us. The names of local horses and horsemen regularly appear in the top tier at world shows. Consequently the horse trailers that go by our house all day long are what top of the line BMWs and Mercedes are in gated city communities ... "statements" as much as transportation.
There is an exception, however. One neighbor, not a horseman, has a rusted out cattle trailer called The Griswald. It looks, I suspect, pretty much like Baxter Black's "Valdez." Still, when anyone around here has 'real' work to do, meaning fractious livestock to haul rather than well trained show horses, they inevitably ask to borrow The Griswald. The man could make a fortune renting her out.
Maybe that proves that when push comes to shove, it's better to have a wrinkled gamy blood hound to pick up the trail instead of a pretty perfumed pomeranian. When one has to rope and pull a cow out of the mud, a beat up roping saddle will do the trick better than a jumping saddle, and a cool headed big boned QH under it will serve better than a fine boned high headed parade horse.
Still, I'd not want to arrive at Will Rogers complex pulling The Griswald.
Connie in TX
A good dose of Barn can seem like a quiet paradise to a person trapped within the confines of cement, asphalt, and traffic all day.
Gosh you brought back some memories with that horse trailer - fortunately I still have my old bumper pull stock trailer (I have let it fall into ill repair - but I still have it, nothing a little paint and new tires won't fix). I pulled that thing with a Ford Explorer for the longest time - no one told me you weren't supposed to do that. Worked fine....till I lost the transmission in it anyway....live and learn!
Oh yes, you are absolutely right. Last night I spent several hours with the wild mare, then ran out in the pasture with a bridle in hand to catch my old steady. Swung up bareback and thought "Oh this is so nice" an easy, nice horse to ride. Yep, I appreciate :)
That trailer is pretty close to the one I had. It went lots of miles and pulled just fine. I got some funny looks with it but I just smiled and knew that I didn't have the huge trailer payment that the other barrel racers had. Not a problem with me. I had to get a bigger trailer when I got my OTTB but it is a tall, roomy stock trailer that didn't cost much. I'm not a fancy person so the looks of trailers don't bother me. At least the person is getting out and getting to do something.
My contrast:
My first horse. An OTTB mare. I rode western and wanted to barrel race, trail ride and work cows. That TB did NOT fit into my idea of a dream horse. But ANY horse was better than NO horse
Here's a good quote I like to remember when contemplating the "c" word: Let us strive to improve ourselves, for we can not remain stationary; one either progresses or retrogrades.(Mme Du Deffand)
I am grateful every day for my job, but when I get home, the last thing I want to think about or talk about is work. I go from being a professional woman to a plain ole barn girl with poop on her jeans.
Growing up I had nothig- jus a horse and a rope halter-I wanted a nice nylon halter so badly! ANd I had to cut their manes with a pair of rusty scissors- and I wanted an electric set-so badly. Now I have both and I do not take either for granted!
Thanks for the walk back-
That blue trailer reminds me of my first trailer. It was an oldtime "used" quarter horse trailer but in good shape. The manager where I boarded called it the "pony trailer". I loved it and went to shows, trail rides and overnights with my arab. It was steel and rusted but my husband and I tried to be vigilant and kept it in good shape. With eventual disuse it started to look "sad" but I couldn't bear to sell it. 2 years ago I was ready to "hit the road" again and knew that I needed another trailer. The trailer dealer said "Do you know what we do with trailers like this? We haul them to a back lot and eventually they get crushed." I was horrified but I was standing by the new "used" trailer that I really wanted to buy. I periodically would go to the website of the trailer dealer and would still see glimpses of my old trailer in the "used" trailer lot but it was never advertised. A few weeks ago to my surprise there was an ad for the "little brown trailer". I was happy for my little trailer.
Steady work and a regular paycheck for the first time in my life!(I'm fairly old too)
I have a few contrasts, I love paying my bills on time and knowing what's coming.
I hate sitting at a desk for the first time since college.
I love my new career (small town newspaper writer) and what I'm learning.
I miss my horses with a real, physical heartache (horse trainer.
I love being able to afford my spring shots (and still eat this month) for the five horse I still have!
My first trailer was a one horse with a single axle I bought I thought that I "arrived"
Connie, later I got a 1978 Phillips with a dressing room It was a fixer upper.. And even though I fixed it up .. There was only so much I could do with it In 1993 I bought a brand new trailer and when I went pick up the new trailer and to trade the old one in, one of my friends taped a copy of Baxter's article of "The Valdez" to the front of it.
But that is not the half of it The Phillips trailer was orginally bought new at a dealer , then they traded it in to the same dealer many years later, I bought it then traded it to another trailer place across the state.... 5 years later I drove by the place that I bought it from and they had it sitting there.... This place I got from also boarded horses and one of their new boarders owned it A year or so later I saw a flyer at the local feed store that it was for sale.. How it came back from over 300 miles to the same place 2 times I will never guess how that happened... I always wonder what happened to it after t was sold that last time
Oh I would have dreamed of that blue trailer when I was a kid and had to ride all the way to the showgrounds! Humble though it is now, I bet it has provided many have miles and adventures.
Suzi
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