Mustang and the seagull

A couple years ago my assistant trainer decided he wanted to participate in the Mustang makeover challenge. The annual event is sponsored by the BLM and awards the winner 10,000 in prize money. Participants are given a wild three to four year old mustang, then have three months to train the animal. At the end of the training period the contestants take their made over mustang to the county fair grounds and show the animals progress. A panel of judges then picks a winner for that year. The challenge is apparent in the requirements to participate. Some of them are having an enclosed stock trailer at least 12 ft. long for transport and a minimum 12x12 holding pen at least eight feet high.

When he arrived with his mustang we backed up the trailer to the round pen and out he burst. The first few days were entertaining and very educational for my ambitious assistant. I however began to notice some things about the wild or free horse. He never drank all his water. It was early summer and most the horses are watered three times a day and frequently empty their buckets. He never did there was always about a quarter or so of water left in his bucket. He was the same with his feed. Rather than consuming it all in two hours like the domestic horses he would eat and come back eat and come back never completely exhausting his resources. He was also very apt at both natural responses to stress exhibited by horses. He could fight well and there was no stop to his flight. In the end he was ride able but held to his natural habits developed for survival.

In St. Petersburg Florida in 1950 a group of people where watching another amazing animal, the seagull, and finding something in their behavior that was as interesting as the mustangs. The beautiful sea birds were starving to death although the sea surrounding the area was plentiful with fish. The gulls for generations had been following the shrimping fleet that made harbor at the St. Petersburg docks. The birds had been feed the scraps from the boats as the fishermen would return from the sea. Eager to take advantage of the hand outs the birds had failed to teach their young how to fish. Within one generation the skills to use the natural abundance around them was lost and the birds relied totally on the fishermen for survival. When the shrimping slowed in the area and the fleet moved, the birds began to starve. They did not know how to survive.

These two incidents have cause me to reflect on the challenges of welfare and its role in our lives. The mustang due to circumstances beyond his control found himself dependent upon us for survival. He needed our hand out. He however never lost his inner will to be free from it. He always left something in his water for the next time he was thirsty. He was careful with his hay, he conserved his resources. When he was placed in situations were his way of life was threatened he fought to preserve it, or ran from those who would take it away. The gulls eager for a hand out lost their way and ability to care for themselves.

Government sponsored welfare tends to act like the fisherman. In an eager attempt to take care of those who follow them the politicians hand out for free. Amongst the flock of excitement for doing something good they fail to see the devastation that follows getting something for nothing. Within a single generation people lose self worth, they lose the skills to provide and are dependent on the scraps. They sit in the mist of the greatest fishing in the world, but cant harvest the plenty because they have been robed of something far more important than food. They have been robed of freedom.

Provident living offers a celestial, or heavenly, way of giving. While providing for temporary needs from current circumstances, it teaches how to fish. When people are rewarded for their efforts they fill self worth. There is a satisfaction that they have earned, they have improved their lot in life. While they may be in the round pen of trial, they see a way over the fence. Using what resources are given to them they take only what is needed and develop a pattern for survival in the freedom of greener pastures. Then, when freed from the fences, they know how to leave a little water in the bucket, for when times become dry again. A reserve that can carry them through till the well runs over once more. When people are caught in times of need we must give them what they need, while teaching them to use the talents they posses to become something more. We can teach people through welfare to become free. This happens when welfare is not a hand out but an opportunities to learn and give back. I have seen this time and time again while serving in a ministering position in my church. People have run on hard times and the church has happily assisted. Giving time for the hand out and learning about provident living the people have become better off than they ever were. They have become free of poor habits and developed skills for survival.

Inside each of us is something wild and free, something that wants to fly. Life will undoubtedly work hard at taming that. We however can find ways to continue to be free if we look to the source of the one who gives us everything. He has asked we give something back as to not “rob God”(see. Malachi 3:8). When we find a balance in not taking more than we need and leaving something for tomorrow miracles happen. We fly in the flock but never stray from the herd. I am very grateful for the welfare system of my church and many like it. I am not so impressed with the results of the federal governments crack at handouts. We have a great responsibility to free the poor in habit in this country and to help those in need. Perhaps looking at the example of the mustang and the seagull is a good place to start.