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Hooter wasn’t much on New Year’s
resolutions. Any he’d ever made were distant memories before
Punxsutawney Phil waddled from his burrow to predict winter’s
fortune.
He’d come close back in 1989 or so,
deciding if he’d just save $2 every day, and then invest it
correctly, over time he’d have a sizeable nest egg. Everything
was going swell until September that year when he more than
borrowed from his cache to pay entry fees during a long string
of tough rodeo luck. He never got around to repaying it.
These days he had too many miles on
him to pretend he didn’t know himself better; too little hair
left to beat around the bush.
That’s what he told the other
members of the Rio Rojo County Cattlemen’s Association when they
quizzed him about his resolutions during their annual Christmas
gala.
“Seems like I come closer to
shooting what I’m aiming at when I don’t aim for it quite so
close,” Hooter explained.
“Like when you’re hunting deer,”
Izzie laughed.
Lonnie spat a stream of Mail Pouch
at the corner of Peetie’s shop. “I don’t know about that. I
think conviction has a lot to do with it. When I went to quit
smoking, that was my resolution for years before I finally got
it licked. You have to keep trying.”
“That, and have the missus threaten
to make you cook for yourself, plus figure it’s OK if you light
up just as long as it’s not in the house or anywhere near her,”
laughed Cousin Charlie.
Between puffs of his New Year’s cigar, Peetie added, “Yep,
conviction is part of it, but so is focus. Back in the 70’s,
mama told me she’d leave me if I didn’t quit the cattle
business. I figured she wasn’t serious, plus she knew I
couldn’t. But I just quit talking about it, and she never
mentioned it again. It wasn’t the cattle business that she
wanted to get rid of, it was me complaining about it. Just like
Lonnie’s wife, it’s not the smoking, it’s the stink. So, you’ve
got to make sure you’re aiming for the right thing in the
situation.”
Izzie hadn’t said much, though he
seemed to be concentrating harder than most times. “You know
what I think the secret is,” he said. “It’s accountability. You
don’t mind letting yourself down sometimes, but you don’t want
to let anybody else down.”
“You mean we can trust you, but we
can’t trust you with yourself?” Lonnie said crossly.
“Exactly,” Izzie replied.
“That may be the most illogical,
numb-headed…” began Lonnie.
“No, he’s got a great point,” Peetie
interjected. “Especially with this group here. Any of us that
decided to try to get something done and wanted the others to
help keep us on track, you can bet we would.”
Aiming for What You Need
So it was that each member who wanted to came up with goals for
the new year, rather than resolutions.
Delmar Jacobs, well versed in the
finer points of alcohol, began, “Fel-fel-fel, hiccup, boys. You
know how I like my rum and coke? You know how my doctor said my
stom-stom-stom, guts are in bad shape? I got to reading up on
these soft drinks. No more cokes for me.”
Lonnie started to say something when Peetie stopped him. “So be
it, Delmar. We see you trying to doctor up your rum, we’ll stop
you.”
Lonnie rolled his eyes.
“I resolve, er, my goal is to be
more vocal and less quiet,” said Peetie. Understand that he’s
known as quite a conversationalist around these parts, so the
boys looked at him in mild disbelief.
“What I mean is, being less quiet
and louder when it comes to the government,” Peetie continued.
“I’m going to keep my Congressmen on speed-dial, and every time
they do something stupid, I’m calling.”
“That’ll make for a long year and
even longer phone bill,” Izzie chided.
“Yep. But think of it. If the sky is
blue outside, but everybody you talk to is holding an umbrella
and talking about the rain, you’re going to think it’s on the
way. It’s got to be the same for these political types. If all
they hear is that ethanol and six-dollar corn are swell, or that
cattle producers want government to regulate the market with
stuff like banning packer ownership of cattle, that’s what
they’ve got to believe unless there’s just as many folks telling
them why that’s wrong.”
“Point taken,” said Lonnie. Everyone
was looking his direction in expectation. “Look, I’ve already
given up smoking, kind of.” The boys kept staring. “Alright
then, my goal is to be better than average.”
“But average is being right about
half the time and wrong the other half, isn’t it?” quizzed Izzie.
“Sounds about right,” Lonnie
countered defensively.
“Well, if you’re better than average
that would make you wrong more often, wouldn’t it?”
“See,” said Lonnie folding his arms
and glaring at Izzie. “How about you Charlie?”
Charlie thought for a moment. “You
know how Aunt Pinky had that health scare a while back? That got
me to thinking. We all know we ought to put the first iron on
the important stuff rather than the immediate, but how often do
we actually do that? My goal is to switch it around, concentrate
on the important stuff and let the immediate fend for itself.”
There were nods all around the
circle.
Of course, had Aunt Pinky been there
she would have told them they were wasting lots of time trying
to sort the unsortable. “You know how you get something done?”
she’d ask Hooter and Charlie when they were boys and not
completing their chores fast enough. “Get started. Now!”
All eyes turned to Hooter. “Have you
got any goals for the new year, Cuz?” wondered Charlie.
“Just one, though it’s going to be tough for you or me to tell
if I’m on track. This year, I take more chances.”
This, of course, was like hearing
Geronimo reckon he might take a little more exception to the
White Man.
“Lord, you trade cattle, isn’t that
gamble enough for you,” chuckled Peetie.
“I’m serious, Peetie. There’s as big
a difference between cash flow and profit as there is between
making a business viable and protecting it.”
Hooter had their attention.
“You can’t ride a bronc with doubt
or soft-loop a steer,” Hooter tried, searching for words. “I
don’t have much, and anything I’ve got I’ve worked hard enough
for, just like all the rest of you. When things got tighter this
last year, I pulled my horns in some, didn’t do things the way
I’d normally do,” Hooter said.
“That’s called common sense,” Lonnie
said.
“Not like I’m talking about. Any of
you with generations in front of you, they didn’t have something
to pass along by playing it safe all of the time, or by taking
foolish chances. They made something worth keeping by taking
rational risk when the opportunity was there. My goal this year
is to take my business another step forward. If that means
taking the chance of going down and out, fine; I’m going down
swinging and believing it was the shot to take.”
proud.”
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