Prison Break

I was talking to my parents recently and a story, that I used to tell a lot when I was little, came up. Before I could choose for myself, I used to be shipped every summer (3 whole months) to my father’s village close to the Serbian border. When I was very small it did not matter, because there were a lot of other kids around to play with, but with years passing, it became more and more difficult to find a soul to talk to which was not a grandparent.

Anyways, this is not a story about my childhood (or maybe a little), but about a specific event which triggered some thoughts in my brain lately. I was probably 6–7 years old when something strange happened in the summer. My sister was chopping apples in the yard and I was dancing and singing around her, when I saw the head of a calf show from the window of our neighbors’ barn. See, the barn was basically attached to our fence and the window was looking into our yard directly. At first, I thought it was something my imagination created, but in a few minutes the calf body, and then his legs made their way out of that very small window. I started yelling, my sister too, and we ran as fast as we could to the house, taking the stairs three at a time. I remember sitting in the hallway and looking through the window, as the calf ran and bellowed in the yard.

There is no need to tell further details, everything went well, as it happens in all fairy tales. The owner of Velko, the calf, came and took him home, but what is important here is the reason why he ran in the first place. What we found out later is that Velko’s owner was beating him every night with his whip and apparently there came a point in Velko’s life in which he could not bare this treatment anymore. I cannot tell you how a big, full grown calf passed through a window not big enough for his head alone, but he was triggered by pain, fear, and possibly hope for better.

This story made me think. We, people, on top of the world, are so afraid to make a change for better, because we are so worried of what could come next, what could go wrong, and what could get worse. Velko is considered a stupid, “no brain” animal by most of us, but his instincts led him to the only possible solution in his situation — escape and hope for better. What has happened with our instincts? What happened to the superior brains we possess and the endless possibilities to learn and develop we have? Most of us are just going with the flow, maybe complaining from time to time, maybe deciding on a new haircut to make us feel different and courageous.

This same behavior applies to every aspect of our lives, I see it in so many people around me, I also see it in me sometimes. It applies to work when we “do not want to bother” saying or doing something, question the status quo and maybe offer a better solution. It applies to our government, which we “bear”, as we see no alternative. It applies to our relationships in which we are stuck for years, as we are too much in our comfort zone.

Think about the decisions you are making, but mostly think about the actions you are not taking, as it is too much effort for you. We have a limited time in this world and nobody wants to be remembered as the “no voice” person. I certainly do not want to.