We started with a thick winter wool coat. As the days got warmer cooling off seemed reasonable. The shearing shops had a special going on. The warm weather made us complacent. A little tired. And sheep wool is rich in lanolin — which means we don’t always notice just how stormy things have gotten until we’re already soaked.
It used to be that the shearing was done gently by talented professionals. Now it has become somewhat more brutal. But if we close our eyes and listen to the reassurances designed to soothe us we shouldn’t notice a few nicks — until we run out of band-aids. Which we will. Because band-aids have gotten expensive and somewhere along the way the health insurance disappeared too.
We are sold a bill of goods declaring the shearing is for our own good. That some sheep shouldn’t be warm and well fed while others wonder where the bread went. Sounds fair. Sounds compassionate. The only reason the shearer is wearing a fine wool overcoat is because the job requires it. The health insurance is so they can stay healthy enough to serve us.
What would you like? Cake?
Mountains of wool we are told. Valleys of wool. Set aside to protect us. There when we need it. Except when we look for it in our times of need it cannot be found. The great wool storage facilities all seem to have names on them — Bezos, Musk, Ellison, and so on down the list. Wolves in sheep’s clothing standing guard at the doors. And someone official explaining patiently that it is no longer ours.
We would ask questions about that.
If we weren’t sheep.
Our system is like the great dinosaurs. The body has died and smells like a toxic dump but the brain hasn’t gotten the message yet.
When I started writing this there was one clear thought — this is Second String Donny’s fault. But by the time I got here I realized everything is broken because we the sheep allowed it to happen. We gave up the wool. Not reluctantly. Voluntarily. A little bit here. A little bit there. Until we ended up naked watching the Royal Baker and Butcher argue over a shepherd’s pie recipe.
