Your Identification Please

Aside from the fact that I just happened to mostly ride Thoroughbreds as a younger person, there's a deeper current in my attraction to these magnificent animals. Something in them resonates within me, perhaps more so even than with other types of horses. This does not detract from my relationships with any of the other breeds - I take each individual as I find them, and horses are definitely individuals, perhaps the most authentic ones one could ever hope to meet.

No, it's something in the eyes. When I look into the eyes of a Thoroughbred a little voice inside me says 'I know you'. I'm not sure who's voice this is, but it isn't mine. Or at least it's not the one that I'm used to hearing.

My favourite song of the past few months is "Run,Run,Run" by Joel Plaskett. I take the liberty of reprinting some lyrics here...

Run,run,run, you must
'Cause if you walk, you rust
You get crushed from a diamond into dirt road dust.

I've had a lot of time in the car to wear a groove in this track and ponder its meaning in my life, in the car, going to try to serve the horses and save my soul.It might even be as dramatic as it sounds, were it not for the fact that I'm a practical philosopher not a wild mystic. It's hard to be either wild nor mystic in an old Honda Civic, stuck in horrendous traffic.

We run, it's what we do. Women especially. I'm from the 'Free to be You and Me' generation, one of the first crops of little people fertilized by the Womens Liberation movement. While I don't think my Mom considered herself a Feminist (any more than she did a Christian), I do know that she was the product of a traditional relationship that was happy and successful based on its high degree of mutual respect and a willingness of the two partners to share the labour however that presented itself. That might have been nontraditional now that I think about it.

By the time I was in grade school it was obvious that women could do just about anything they wanted. Not only could, but should. Oh, but balance this with your womanly duties, dear. And we still have womanly duties. First of these being to do whatever you are doing well. Or maybe that's just me...

Anyway, I'm in the world of business for a good portion of my day. I'm also in a man's world to a very large extent. Every Thursday morning at 6am I walk into the Mens Locker Room, though I am supposed to be there. From the talk around me to the pressure of getting my job done (it's not a store, it's an auction and therefore a competition), there's not much relief. On Thursdays especially, I run.

So, I do my job. I even love my job in some ways. It's downright sporty a lot of the time and I do try to play to the top of my game as often as possible- in everything I do, which I am pretty sure is as much me as anything societal.