{"id":4293,"date":"2023-01-11T19:13:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-12T00:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kathryncolleen.com\/studio\/?post_type=project&p=4293"},"modified":"2026-08-07T17:54:25","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T21:54:25","slug":"stories-waldo-the-golden-calf","status":"publish","type":"project","link":"https:\/\/kathryncolleen.com\/studio\/project\/stories-waldo-the-golden-calf\/","title":{"rendered":"Stories – Waldo The Golden Calf"},"content":{"rendered":"
Long walks are opportunities for nature to work its way into your life, to confront you with realities you might not otherwise notice, zipping by, safely ensconced in your car. She Who Sees and her beloved took many long walks regularly along these old back country roads. It was always oddly eventful. She never realized that so much happened on these seemingly quiet and unpopulated roads. It turns out that those back country roads are plenty populated, just not by people.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Every other day; they walked. On one of their first walks outside of that town, they happened upon a young calf. He was positively pure gold in color, with dark red eyes. He was small enough to squeeze through the barbed wire fence that penned in his herd. The couple saw him slip out with an air of rebellion. He walked along the dirt and gravel road rather nonchalantly for a fugitive calf. Didn\u2019t he know they would come for him?<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Walk after long walk, there he was, the fugitive loner, escaped yet again from his fences and happily walking along the roadside munching on the tall grasses and bits of scrub brush. There was a water hole he knew of that he would visit sometimes about a mile down the road. Sometimes he was on the roadside, sometimes he was hiding in the brush on one side of the road or the other. Where\u2019s Waldo? The couple would joke to each other. They always did find him, free and relaxed.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Waldo was brave, and friendly. He wouldn\u2019t move much as the couple passed, letting the woman offer him some energy for safe travels. He seemed strange to the couple who had never seen one like him; such unusual eyes and color. He seemed magical, like an ambassador of the cosmos, as the famous monk would say. Or perhaps he was an ancestor come to say hello.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Despite the fun and relaxed freedom that Waldo seemed to illicit, there was always a little melancholy in their meetings. The couple were aware of Waldo\u2019s ultimate fate, and it was largely unavoidable. Something suggested that Waldo knew it too. Secretly the woman whispered to Waldo to run far and hide. But he ever made it more than a couple of miles down the road before he was discovered and carted back to his herd. As time went on, the farmers would wait a little longer before retrieving him. They knew he would not really go that far. He might even get tired and take a nap in the brush. He wasn\u2019t hard to catch.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
On their last walk on that road, Waldo greeted the couple with his entire herd, from within the fence this time, somewhat resigned to his fate, choosing to connect to his herd while he could. Perhaps there would be time to live, and time to run away again. But he was getting big lately. The fences could just about hold him now, or maybe at so many hundreds of pounds, and with all the free food, good company, and certain shelter, he was just more willing to stay put. Complacency is potent temptation even in the face of certain death.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Even though he was so big now, and seemingly far less rebellious, he was still the same shade of positively pure gold, with the same red eyes and the same air of mystery. Maybe he was just a lazy cow, growing fat. Maybe he was wiser now. Maybe he found that there was nothing on the road more exciting than the company of his herd, and that his fate was his fate, and so be it. Or maybe he made a conscious choice that a short but luxurious life with a swift end was better than a possibly longer yet harder life on his own with a possibly harder end to match. Life, in its trade offs, presented itself so perfectly through Waldo. The couple, walking their long walks as they were always compelled to do, traveling the open roads on some pilgrimage of freedom, they considered the choice themselves and opted for the harder, but longer and more exciting path. They bid the golden calf farewell, and wished him a little more time with his herd, and a perhaps just one more adventure.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An allegorical story about a golden calf who repeatedly slips through his fence yet keeps returning to the herd, weighing the trade-off between a longer, harder life of freedom and a shorter, comfortable life of complacency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4295,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","episode_type":"audio","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"project_category":[31,2086],"project_tag":[36,2069,1429,654,180,900,280,649,981,2052,947,1452,1857,977,489,309,1012,1248,655,112,302,186,979,978,284,980,605,332,1361,283],"series":[],"class_list":["post-4293","project","type-project","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","project_category-observations","project_category-stories","project_tag-art","project_tag-books","project_tag-business","project_tag-complete-connection","project_tag-connection","project_tag-consciousness","project_tag-cycle","project_tag-cycle-of-human-development","project_tag-finding-peace","project_tag-guided-meditations","project_tag-human-development","project_tag-lasting-peace","project_tag-lastingpeace-org","project_tag-life-optimization","project_tag-meditation","project_tag-money","project_tag-podcasts","project_tag-poetry","project_tag-purna-asatti","project_tag-relationships","project_tag-religion","project_tag-science","project_tag-seeing-yourself","project_tag-self-mastery","project_tag-self-development","project_tag-self-improvement-2","project_tag-self-understanding","project_tag-society","project_tag-spirituality","project_tag-stages"],"acf":{"recommend_blurb":"For readers who enjoy parables about freedom, comfort, and the choices that shape a life. A quiet meditation on complacency versus the harder path, told through a memorable roadside encounter.","citation_snippet":"Dr. Kathryn Messegee (Kathryn Colleen), \"Stories - Waldo The Golden Calf,\" https:\/\/kathryncolleen.com\/studio\/project\/stories-waldo-the-golden-calf\/","topics":["growth","essays"],"related_book":"","buy_url":""},"episode_featured_image":"https:\/\/kathryncolleen.com\/studio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/6BC929C0-7031-43D6-A7A7-8D2FA232F15B-scaled.jpeg","episode_player_image":"https:\/\/kathryncolleen.com\/studio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/CCA57320-6DC3-4284-BC27-49E433028503.jpeg","download_link":"","player_link":"","audio_player":false,"episode_data":{"playerMode":"dark","subscribeUrls":{"apple_podcasts":{"key":"apple_podcasts","url":"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/on-life-being-human\/id1360368906","label":"Apple Podcasts","class":"apple_podcasts","icon":"apple-podcasts.png"},"google_podcasts":{"key":"google_podcasts","url":"","label":"Google Podcasts","class":"google_podcasts","icon":"google-podcasts.png"},"spotify":{"key":"spotify","url":"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/2nq6d35q9nFAFlanaJc2Do","label":"Spotify","class":"spotify","icon":"spotify.png"},"stitcher":{"key":"stitcher","url":"","label":"Stitcher","class":"stitcher","icon":"stitcher.png"}},"rssFeedUrl":"https:\/\/kathryncolleen.com\/studio\/feed\/podcast\/on-life-being-human","embedCode":"

Stories – Waldo The Golden Calf<\/a><\/blockquote>