what are our principles?

More baby goats, another set of triplets, and of course, one of the coldest nights of  the year.  We weren't particularly expecting these -- her bag hadn't gotten noticeably larger.  And that may have been one of the problems.  But that isn't my story.

My story is this:  One of the babies was smaller and got weak within the first 24 hours.  I tried to help her nurse, as mom has great milking teats but they are a bit large for newborn nursing.  She was past wanting to nurse.  Oh well, I thought.  Then one of the kids asked, "Can't you do anything?"  Well, yeah, I could tube milk into her.  I have a friend who's had expensive goats who's done this, so I asked him.  Yes, he's done it, and he's never had one live.

And it made me think.  Those goats were born, all girls, and I have to admit that one of the things I thought about was how much I could sell them for.  When I knew that one would die, I thought, hmmm, I've "lost" money in the same way the Enron et al. folks "lost" money.  That is a paradigm that we've actively moved away from, this something from nothing, this money-centeredness.  Although you'll have to admit a goat baby is about as real as you can get.  Still, infanticide is natures favorite form of birth control.  Still, don't count your chickens before they hatch.

And that made me think about how easy it is to start with the interventions.  All it takes is that certain knowledge that this goat will die if you do nothing.  After all, last month that knowledge made me reach into a goat's uterus.  This month, will it make me tube feed a goat?  And if I tube feed a goat, and it *still* dies (as the stuck goat eventually died), will that make me certain that getting goats to live is indeed a difficult thing to do and so I need to buy all the more into interventions to prevent such?

And that made me think about a Pat Parelli quote:  "Keep your ambitions tempered by your principles."  It is my personal opinion that Mr. Parelli didn't think too much about principles as they relate to consumerism, but that doesn't mean he didn't hit the nail on the head.  Lawd knows we all fall short.  But what ARE our principles?  Is it to turn goats into money?  Or to have a herd that produces healthy meat and milk naturally without intervention and basically for free?

What ARE our principles?  It is a question that we must always ask ourselves, always.

ps  This is post 666 of this blog.  There are no coincidences.