I am a sheeple with my big wooly sheep coat. You can herd me in your meadows and I will do what you say: obey traffic signs, wear masks on airlines during a pandemic, attend public schools, collect a social security check (someday!)
I am a sheeple, a member of society, and I will follow rules that help us live together in a hopefully harmonious way. Off to nursery school we go, unto marriage we bind, into assisted living we rest.
You who try to shame us with the word sheeple–people compared to sheep in being docile, foolish or easily led–are sheeple, too. We’re all sheeple as we’re guided by our culture, our society, our civilization to live and work and play together in ways which attempt (and often fail) to protect the greater whole. To protect the vulnerable, the fringes, the poor, the unsung, the homeless, the weak. To maintain order, health, safety for the precious herd.
See that stop sign, dear sheeple? Let us stop, shall we? Let us not crash. Let us honor our fellow drivers as they drive home weary after a day at work, their eyes glazed and heart yearning to reconnect with loved ones.
I am also a lone mountain lion, a cougar, a panther. An individual with fiercely individualistic teeth and paws and sleek coat. You will find me high atop a craggy mountain, deep within the green forest, traveling a steep ravine. You will find me researching, thinking for myself, scanning the horizon for danger and safety, playing with my pups as autumn stretches its lazy afternoons forever.
I wear my own opinions like warm winter coats. My beliefs like yellow work gloves. I don’t think like the crowd. I’m not mainstream. I think differently than you and you and you. Unique, aren’t we? Fingerprints so distinct and unrepeatable. A snowflake never before seen–and never witnessed again. Don’t blink. I am falling from the sky just to melt away by noon on an October day.
Oh you dear cougar, you hungry individualist, you special, distinctive, quirky being–oh how I love you for being yourself! Shine on, shine on. Howl to the moon in all its phases. Be as eccentric and quirky as you create and re-create your amazing self.
But, I do beg of you, do not eat your sheeple self for dinner. We need both parts of ourselves to live and thrive and co-exist with our fellows. We dance with these partners daily: me, us, me, us, me, us.
It’s not individual rights versus collectivism. It’s not a me versus civilization. It’s both/and. We need both. In the dance one moves, one pivots, one sways, one holds, one lets go, both reconnect.
Call us two-faced, if you will. But see if you can discover both parts within, the sheeple and the cougar. Perhaps, if you like inner microscopes, you might keep looking for more animals. Oh, there’s the wee mouse of myself, so timid and industrious. Here’s the eagle flying high with broad views. See the raccoon wearing her mask and washing her sweet hands? Look–I’m a porcupine, too, all prickly and shooting quills into those who disagree. And now, see the precious rabbit hopping away into another rainy cool October day? Keep hopping, my darlings, keep hopping!
Lake Superior Spirit 
Love it!💞
Sincerely made me smile.😊and I needed a smile this morning. We are all these things. It’s strange when “people” try to define you based on their personal dictionary, as though that’s the last word.
Thank you, dear Ruth–one of my dear unique friends with many facets! I don’t like the way people tend to define us, either. I think we even do this to ourselves–try to put ourselves in handy categories. But we’ve got Universes inside of us–and I am glad you are in mine.
I love this fiercely. Thank you SO much. Again and again – it all needs to be included and held, I am doing my very best these days – including giving my self breaks and be supersilly
I love that you loved this fiercely! Me too–trying to hold all the different parts of who we are. And super silly works too. Wonder what animal might reflect our super silly side? Laughing hyena? lol!
I’ve never thought of you as a sheeple. Quite the opposite, but if you say you are a sheeple at times then I’ll believe you. I generally think of myself as a leopard. Solitary, watchful, wearing a lovely patterned coat. Able to blend in when necessary, and only then.
Good morning, Ally Bean! I am a sheeple because I am easily led to stop at stop signs. To go to kindergarten. That kind of sheeple thing. I am also a leopard like you. Blending in when necessary, but not too often. I think of myself of representative of the entire animal kingdom, but the excitement is I haven’t discovered half of the similarities yet! So nice to see you this morning, dear leopard.
Don’t call me two-faced. I have enough faces to fill a school bus!
(I hope you are laughing with me)
I am laughing with you! And I am on the bus with you, too. 🚍🚌😏
Yay! 🥳
There is something that resonates with your last blog on imperfections. There is a balance we need to discover about ourselves. As you wrote, we have to embrace the two sides, we have to be aware of our defects, some times they work for us yet when they no longer do, we can take the opportunity to create the change. Same here, we follow the rules to stay in balance with society yet when social justice is questioned, when lives matter we have to go within to examine our beliefs, our consciousness.
We are multifaceted beings ever shifting and evolving…
Love this story….
Thank you!
Jeff, I like the way you’re thinking. And how you recognized how the imperfection blog–and this one–kind of go together. How it’s a matter of balance between the outer rules and the inner questioning. And how we’re never really stagnant–we’re evolving and changing. I am glad you liked this sheeple story! It made me happy to write it. 🙂
Thank you for writing this, my sheeple, lion, cougar, panther, crab friend! Just have a sec to pop in today, but must tell you this is another piece of brilliance. Love you!
Hello, Susan Dee, my sheeple, antelope, kangaroo, hawk, turtle, seagull friend! Whatcha mean by calling me crabby? Just kiddin’, said the Cancer girl. Love the way the wind–your words–blow through you. This is another piece where it felt like it was written almost through me than by me, at least in some ways. Hope your busy day is fun too!
Guess I’m really out of it because I’ve never heard the term Sheeple. I think it’s people who are unhappy with their own lives who call others names like Sheeple. I enjoyed the way you responded to it here – none of us are one animal, be it sheep or cougar or raccoon. We are individual beings full of many puzzle pieces. Sharp and round. Simple and complex. Here’s to being our many selves but in doing so keeping others safe. In other words, we think of others before we take action, because we know we are not the only one in the world. We are all part of the world
Since I private-messaged you, will not respond too much to your comment. Love what you said here. In fact, I always consider comments like mini-blogs, so full of insights. We are all part of the world…we are simple and complex…many selves and one Self. xoxoxo my friend!
I like that quirky big cat sculpture on the log. It’s amazing when you think about how many facets our personalities include. Your way of describing that reality is delightful.
Barbara, thank you so much! I have always been fascinated about the many aspects of ourselves. Love that you enjoyed this effort to take away shame and judgment from the word sheeple. Do you think I should write a blog about our inner Donald Trump or do you think this would be too much for some people, lol?
lol It would be way too much for me! shuddering…
Me too! *laughing*
Beautifully put Kathy
Bright Blessings
Thank you, dear Tilly! 💗
Let’s talk about “shaming” people. How ‘bout shaming people by calling them “white supremacists” or “racists?” How about shaming people by telling them they don’t care about others? Those “shameful MAGAts” refuse to vote for the “righteous politicians” who can dictate to all human beings what is moral and virtuous to do and how to behave. Having minds of their own means they are immoral, white supremacist-racists, without a thought for fellow human beings. Yes, that feels good to be labeled those things.
Cause that’s exactly who I am, right? Or, maybe I’m the one who is sheep. Or, maybe I’m just stupid and don’t get it.
And who put these mean-spirited, judgmental ideas into our minds about our fellow countrymen? Who made us believe these things of people we may have had good friendships with at one time but now think these mean-spirited, judgmental ideas of each other?
Yes, I look to find the white supremacist in myself, the racist, the anti-racist, the one that shames, the one who is shamed. My view is that I look inside and see the whole world inside. Everything, everywhere. I am not focusing so much on someone putting those ideas into me…it’s that they are spiritually already there. It’s how we choose to relate that seems the most interesting question to me.
Nothing but goodness is the real you, Kathy. We are trained to believe we are also negative things. That’s not to say that we always behave appropriately, but spiritually, you are prefect, and so am I.
I think this is our big common ground, Lori. Who we really are is pure love, pure goodness, pure aliveness, pure joy, pure peace. Ahhh, the delight of that! Now this human incarnation is another ball of wax…
You said you look to find the racist in you, etc. It’s each person’s journey to look within, but that doesn’t mean we all hold the same flaws. It also doesn’t mean we have a flaw just because someone tells us we have it or calls us that nasty name.
We must not accept flaws that have been projected onto us that others refuse to address in themselves. Looking within is to discover, discern, embrace, and address our own unique, individual flaws.
I learned this after I moved to Florida. Once I had put distance between myself and my family, I started to see I did not have the flaws they had projected onto me. I took them on as if they were mine, because I was told they were, but they were not. I had my own unique flaws that I needed to discover through my own journey within. Because in this human existence, we are not all the same.
“To discover the One Self . . . you must surrender to the uniqueness of your life experience. It is paradoxical perhaps: to encounter the Universal, you must fully individuate.” ~ Paul Ferrini
I DO believe that if a certain person really annoys us, then it’s important to look within to see if the flaws that annoy us in them, is in us. I didn’t even vote for this president the first time around. I couldn’t stand him. I asked myself why? I looked within. I also saw others’ unhinged behavior regarding him and realized, I was doing the same. It gave me a whole new perspective, because I looked within.
Since I’m being open and honest, I was a conservative, but a never-Trumper. I need to point out that being called a racist is not something that is new because of him. This has been happening to people like me for almost 2 decades. Good people who have flaws, but are not racists. I claim my flaws, but racist is not one of them.
I perhaps see where you are coming from, Lori, but it feels like an area where we are talking different levels of Being. In deep meditation when I look inside I am everything in the world. The trees, the rocks, the racist, the non-racist, Trump, Biden, everything, everyone. This is at the deepest level of being. In my personality I may not identify with being racist–may even abhor it. But on the deepest level I am One with everything and everyone. That’s what is being described here. On the level of personality, yes, we are each so unique, like fingerprints. Have learned that understanding about how other people can project flaws upon us that aren’t true on the level of personality…but, once again, that’s not the level I was writing about here. I love being a unique being, but also opening to this perspective, too. But it’s almost impossible to describe in words this Oneness that permeates. Thanks for sharing more about your personal journey and feelings and learnings.
Thank you for indulging me.
I love this, Kathy. Thank you so much for telling a good story, one that I think needs to be told. We are a little of everything, aren’t we? ❤
And I must thank you once again for the inspiration about how stories can inspire a new way of looking at the world. I am not sure if most people want to stretch their minds into this viewpoint of being everything and everyone, but this story does want to be told. (And the next time someone calls me or someone else a sheeple perhaps we all may remember this little story and feel compassion for all of our parts instead of shame.). xoxoxo
Wise words Kathy. We all like to think we are completely unique and special but we have to recognise that we’re part of a whole and there is no shame in doing things that help that whole to be safe.
Andrea, you’ve expressed what I truly believe. That we’re part of something larger than ourselves, and whatever we can do to think of the Whole is a gift we can give. Thank you.
It is important to follow the rules of society in order to maintain peace and harmony. Thank you for sharing your thoughts on the word sheeple.
Yez, thank you for saying so. We are individuals, but we are also members of a greater whole. I am glad you enjoyed this unique spin on it.