Wolves and Sheep

This is another conversation I had with my godfather some time ago. The conversation was on leadership roles in vodou societies. He asked, not rhetorically (as it turns out), if the archetypal wolf has more to fear than the archetypal sheep.

At the time, I answered that the sheep has more to fear. The opinion of the shepherd, the shepherd’s dog, and the wolf itself—sheep are surrounded by things that they have to mind, many of which they have to obey. He was visibly disappointed with the answer, as he should have been, and answered that the wolf has more to fear. The wolf must fear for food, for shelter, the shepherd and the shepherd’s dog, other wolves. The price of the wolf’s freedom to roam is the assumption of all the effort needed to survive.

Now, I have a different answer. I agree, the wolf has more to fear, but survival is not the only problem the wolf has.

The sheep agrees to live in a world where survival is less important than perception, having surrendered all control of their lives to the shepherd. It is the shepherd’s opinion, the shepherd’s attention, the shepherd’s mood which becomes most important, because it is the shepherd who chooses how the sheep lives.

I am strongly reminded of working a 9-5, in the hothouse that is most offices, where the opinion of your boss and peers feels like life and death.

The wolf lives in a world where survival is more important than perception. For the wolf, everyone is likely an enemy and everyone considers the wolf an enemy. Being perceived well by everyone is impossible and won’t feed the wolf anyway. The wolf must live with the knowledge that everything it does will be met with opposition and that it does not easily benefit from the collective efforts of the sheep and shepherd. There is no one to help care for it but other wolves, and those wolves may not be interested in the wolf’s survival.

And yet, it is because the wolf is not ruled by perception that the wolf can play with perception. When you do not think the game is life and death, you are free to observe and understand the rules. You are not bound to a single role by the fear that you must comply with the rules for that role else risk disapproval, the little internal nag which makes so many people fearful their whole lives.

The ability to play that game well is a survival tool for a wolf, surrounded and outnumbered by sheep, shepherds, and shepherd’s dogs. The consequences are life and death, but not on the opinion of the shepherd: on the ability to play itself, on the skill of the wolf.

I am reminded of being a priest, though unlike a wolf, I am kindly inclined toward the sheep.