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Showing posts from June, 2016

Bodhi the Bodhisattva Rooster

     The first rule you learn when working on a farm is, “Don’t name the animals”.   The reason for this is that naming an animal opens the door for you to develop an emotional attachment towards them, and then not being able to slaughter them when the time comes.   I’ve chosen to obey this rule for all of the animals on the farm except one.   He’s a Rhode Island Red rooster, and I’ve decided to name him Bodhisattva or Bodhi for short.   In Buddhist tradition, a Bodhisattva is a being who has attained enlightenment and escaped the karmic cycle of suffering, but refuses to enter into nirvana until all sentient beings can go with them.     This name fits Bodhi perfectly because he has proven to be the world’s greatest escape artist.   Countless times, he’s been captured and put back inside of the electric fence at the end of the day only to be found running free the following day.   It’s gotten to the point that we’ve just stopped putting him back inside the fence.   Farming i

On Muhammad Ali and the Importance of Sacrifice

     Ali's incredible physical prowess in the ring combined with his ability to predict what round he would K.O. his opponents allowed him to transcend the sport in such a way that even a nonathletic nerd like myself knows his story.  I had his poster on my wall when I was in college, and I loved reading about his fights with George Foreman and Joe Frazier.  As humans, I think we have a natural desire to see the absolute peak of human potential, and Muhammad Ali showed us that every time he stepped in the ring.  To be honest, I've never been a huge boxing fan.  Even as a kid, the idea of two men standing in a ring, and beating each other senseless for the entertainment of howling, blood-thirsty fans always seemed kind of wrong to me.  That being said, you don't need to be a boxing fan in order to know that normal people can't do stuff like  this  or  this .      For me, however, his greatest moment came when he was standing outside of the boxing ring on April 28th,