What Happens to the Losers?
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What Happens to the Losers?By Bill Rowsome
A good question. What are losers and what happens to them? I was musing this over a coffee in the morning when Maggie paddled down rubbing her eyes and crawled up on my lap.
"What happens to the other two wolves?" She had not forgotten. "Remember Grandpa there was an old gray one and a young one with a slick coat." Prompted by a child, that is what keeps life worth while.
" The Old Gray One, Maggie, is wise in the ways of the pack. He will keep his counsel; he will wait to pounce, as he has waited before. He will keep trying until he also is too long in tooth. He is not that unhappy with life but wants to keep stirring the pot."
"Stirring the pot, Grandpa! What's he cooking?"
"He is cooking up thoughts, trying to make good food so the pack will live better. He likes to take his time, using a slow cooker, like your mother's." "Is the young one cooking also?" The persistence of youth!
"Yes, my dear, but he is trying to cook differently. He uses a pressure cooker, remember your mother used one until it blew up."
"Will he mess up the kitchen like mummy did?"
"He may, that will depend upon what he does before the next time he cooks up a stew."
"Grandpa, you are teasing me, wolves don't cook stew, what does the little wolf have to do?" This, her considered reply, trying to relate young, little, and inexperience, to her own limited view of this complicated life she has begun.
"The little wolf has to do as he preached when he fought. Remember how your mother tells you to 'practice what you preach' when you boss your little brother. He has to run with the pack, working with them to get food. He has to help the leader, to imitate his ways. He has to be wary and forever vigilant, to wait for the right time to pounce. He has to observe The Big Wolf Pack in the Ottawa bush that also has a wily old follower ready to shove and a young pup nipping at the heels of the leader while waiting for his misstep. There is a lot to be learned in watching an old experienced wolf pack."
"Grandpa, wolves are bad, they ate Little Red Riding Hood's grandmother." Little Red Riding Hood! Had to pause for a moment; who tells these strange fairy tales to our kids, all they do is confuse the issues.
"No dear, they are not bad. They, like the rest of us, have to live. Unlike humans they cull out the weak and the laggards to make Mother Nature stronger."
Better not get into this any deeper. "Maggie, let's get dressed and go for a walk." Thank goodness she consented, as she loves to show her Grandpa all the important things at her height, things that from my lofty position in life are invisible.
There is a lot to be learned while walking with Maggie along the shore of Mazinaw Lake.
