{"id":216893956,"date":"2012-10-21T11:29:00","date_gmt":"2012-10-20T22:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bignoseduglyguy.com\/?p=216893956"},"modified":"2012-10-21T11:29:12","modified_gmt":"2012-10-20T22:29:12","slug":"sacred-cows-and-the-calf-path","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bignoseduglyguy.com\/?p=216893956","title":{"rendered":"Sacred Cows and The Calf Path"},"content":{"rendered":"

Depending on which account you read, Mark Twain or a Commissioner of Education for the State of New York or\u00a0Abbie Hoffman once said that sacred cows make the best hamburger. While a pithy soundbite like this is full of fun and easy to recall, it doesn’t have half the charm and depth of ‘The Calf Path’, a poem by\u00a0Sam Walter Foss, which tackles the same theme far more eloquently. I came across the poem whilst reading Julie Ferwerda’s Raising Hell, which explores and questions the notion of hell in Christian doctrine.<\/p>\n

\n

The Calf Path<\/p>\n

One day, through the primeval wood,
A calf walked home, as good calves should;<\/p>\n

But made a trail all bent askew,\u00a0
A crooked trail as all calves do.<\/p>\n

Since then three hundred years have fled,\u00a0
And, I infer, the calf is dead.<\/p>\n

But still he left behind his trail,\u00a0
And thereby hangs my moral tale.<\/p>\n

The trail was taken up next day,\u00a0
By a lone dog that passed that way.<\/p>\n

And then a wise bell-wether sheep,\u00a0
Pursued the trail o’er vale and steep;<\/p>\n

And drew the flock behind him too,\u00a0
As good bell-wethers always do.<\/p>\n

And from that day, o’er hill and glade.\u00a0
Through those old woods a path was made.<\/p>\n

And many men wound in and out,\u00a0
And dodged, and turned, and bent about;<\/p>\n

And uttered words of righteous wrath,\u00a0
Because ’twas such a crooked path.<\/p>\n

But still they followed – do not laugh –\u00a0
The first migrations of that calf.<\/p>\n

And through this winding wood-way stalked,\u00a0
Because he wobbled when he walked.<\/p>\n

This forest path became a lane,\u00a0
that bent, and turned, and turned again.<\/p>\n

This crooked lane became a road,\u00a0
Where many a poor horse with his load,<\/p>\n

Toiled on beneath the burning sun,\u00a0
And traveled some three miles in one.<\/p>\n

And thus a century and a half,\u00a0
They trod the footsteps of that calf.<\/p>\n

The years passed on in swiftness fleet,\u00a0
The road became a village street;<\/p>\n

And this, before men were aware,\u00a0
A city’s crowded thoroughfare;<\/p>\n

And soon the central street was this,\u00a0
Of a renowned metropolis;<\/p>\n

And men two centuries and a half,\u00a0
Trod in the footsteps of that calf.<\/p>\n

Each day a hundred thousand rout,\u00a0
Followed the zigzag calf about;<\/p>\n

And o’er his crooked journey went,\u00a0
The traffic of a continent.<\/p>\n

A Hundred thousand men were led,\u00a0
By one calf near three centuries dead.<\/p>\n

They followed still his crooked way,\u00a0
And lost one hundred years a day;<\/p>\n

For thus such reverence is lent,\u00a0
To well established precedent.<\/p>\n

A moral lesson this might teach,\u00a0
Were I ordained and called to preach;<\/p>\n

For men are prone to go it blind,\u00a0
Along the calf-paths of the mind;<\/p>\n

And work away from sun to sun,\u00a0
To do what other men have done.<\/p>\n

They follow in the beaten track,\u00a0
And out and in, and forth and back,<\/p>\n

And still their devious course pursue,\u00a0
To keep the path that others do.<\/p>\n

They keep the path a sacred grove,\u00a0
Along which all their lives they move.<\/p>\n

But how the wise old wood gods laugh,\u00a0
Who saw the first primeval calf!<\/p>\n

Ah! many things this tale might teach –\u00a0
But I am not ordained to preach.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Depending on which account you read, Mark Twain or a Commissioner of Education for the State of New York or\u00a0Abbie Hoffman once said that sacred cows make the best hamburger. While a pithy soundbite like this is full of fun and easy to recall, it doesn’t have half the charm and depth of ‘The Calf […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,15,25,264],"tags":[718,719,716,715,717],"class_list":["post-216893956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-faith","category-life","category-ponderings","tag-julie-ferwerda","tag-raising-hell","tag-sacred-cows","tag-sam-walter-foss","tag-the-calf-path"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bignoseduglyguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216893956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bignoseduglyguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bignoseduglyguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bignoseduglyguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bignoseduglyguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=216893956"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/bignoseduglyguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216893956\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":216893958,"href":"https:\/\/bignoseduglyguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216893956\/revisions\/216893958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bignoseduglyguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=216893956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bignoseduglyguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=216893956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bignoseduglyguy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=216893956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}