Up with Wolves

Just a minute!

Justin keeps us level headed around the old Cantankerous Old Coots campfire. Sometimes when the old cantankerous spirit starts moving me it just carries me away like those rampaging mountain streams up the hill from the old homestead. Sometimes I just let the spirit take me on a wild detour. I go with the flow, get my mojo working and ride the rapids into a dead end. (That was every cliché I could remember but if I missed any, please leave a comment because in my book, you can never have enough cliches.) So, as Justin reminds me, I got carried away about sheep lately. It’s time to move on.

Sheep are a fact of life.

But that doesn’t mean you let them take charge.  Like so many other uncontrollables today, sheep are both a problem and an opportunity. While sheep may not contribute to the dialogue here at Cantankerous Old Coots or anyplace else for that matter, if we intend for COC to dominate the blogosphere, we can’t do it without the support of sheep. There are just too many of them.

It’s a known fact that the population today is 95% sheep- probably more. You can’t have a successful blog if you bash 95% of your potential audience. But I can be dense. I was missing that point, being all engaged with my sheep fixation. Justin, however, was on top of the situation. He was watching our course while I scuttled the ship. Fortified from his early morning kettle bell meditation and smelling of baby powder, he stepped in to put things right .

Justin sounds a wake up call.

“Get your mind back on track.” He signaled subtly. “Sheep are the bread and butter here at COC, stop beating them up and focus on wolves.”

I hate to admit Justin’s brilliance because there is always payback. He runs a tight ship. I may have to eat crow in the staff meetings and do menial tasks for the next month but it’s better than chasing sheep around the pasture.  The truth is obvious.  There is no future in sheep. They are either maddening or invisible. Neither is any fun even when  you get to pick which you prefer. Justin counsels to pick invisible and I am forced to agree. (We’d ask Bob but he’s still looking for clean underwear.) So the consensus here at COC is that from now on sheep will be invisible. We know they are out there. We know that they constitute at least 95% of our potential audience. We know that if they do read COC, they won’t comment or fill out our surveys. We also know that even the most stubborn sheep will read COC from time to time and we are OK with that. We just aren’t going to tailor our communications to sheep.

The future is wolves.

Wolves are the new media darlings whether in Yellowstone Park or in the blogosphere. Wolves are restoring the ecosystems wherever they are re-introduced. I don’t doubt that a few wolves introduced into the right environment can solve all the world’s problems. Global warming- add wolves and make it better. Not enough jobs. Introduce wolf packs into the workplace to thin down the overpopulation. So if wolves are the future, COC is going to the wolves too.  Are you coming along with us?  We are safer in a crowd.