Top 25 Reasons to Be a Cowboy | #24 “Essential Personnel”
Originally, the 24th best reason to be a cowboy was slated as: a short commute. In light of the COVID-19 health scare, I feel it’s only appropriate to spin it a bit to this new (temporary?) reality.
For 15 years, I endured a two-hour-each-way commute. In full disclosure, it was just one day per week, so I had six days to recuperate. For me, a short commute had both monetary and mental-health value.
Cowboys, in many instances, enjoy that small commute. For most, they can literally walk out of their house across the yard to the barn to start their day. Day workers and independent ranchers with far-flung leases might have longer commutes on occasion, but in general, they still have plenty of work right at home.
Despite not having long commutes, country folks don’t have a problem driving long distances. School, church, groceries, hardware, the feed store, the sale barn, and any other good or service is probably a ways off.
Even though trips to town can be an inconvenience, in times like these, social distancing isn’t hard for cowboys.
In fact, for most cowboys, daily life isn’t really even interrupted. The cows still need fed. Ice needs broken, calves need pulled, and that colt needs to be ridden if he’s going to be any good come branding time.
And from a bigger picture, the world still needs us. A recent visit to the grocery store revealed the meat counter was completely bought out. (By the way, there was plenty of Beyond Beef left!) We need to continue providing our nation and our world affordable, nutritious protein. Cowboys, in this day and age, are essential personnel.
So, yeah, there is a nice benefit to living life in a socially-distant way, but we know that our lives can’t stop. Even when the futures market tells us our work has lost a third of value, we keep going. We continue to fulfill our purpose of feeding the world and caring for creation.