Open Range

In a few weeks--as I write this--I will begin the eighth year of living in the place I call 'home'. How I came to this paradise is irrelevant to matters here. Suffice it to say I have written at great length about the experience, this particular adventure, elsewhere.

Awhile back, a fellow I know, a fellow I have known for more than twenty years, a fellow who questioned my sanity when I decided to move to my current home, contacted me, wanting to know if 'he could stop by'.

Suspecting his intentions were not pure I said he could, provided he followed a condition: He had better be ready to ride a horse and move cattle.

I thought this condition might cause him to change his mind about visiting me, but it didn't. In fact, he came prepared to do what I had previously demanded of him.

Long story short: I arranged for us to be part of an open range cattle drive. At the end of the first day, our respective rumps sore, our faces sunburned, and honestly tired from an honest day's work, I assumed he would go to sleep and not get up in time for another day of this adventure.

I was wrong: When the crew awoke the next morning, just after dawn, he was already up, dressed, and helping the cook at the chuckwagon get breakfast ready.

For a full week he and I rode, and rode hard. He learned how to bring a wild-eyed steer down and brand it. He learned how to ride and ride well. Then the time came when he and I were to part company. He turned to me, offered his hand and said, honestly, 'Now I understand why you moved here. It's just so honest.'

Honesty. It's a wonderful thing. So why it is, then, we feel compelled to keep up appearances and effectively lie about the state of our lives? And why is it conventional wisdom tends to badmouth and disparage films and movies that go to celebrate honesty? Could it be because honesty has a tendency to scare?

Oh, yes: Honesty can be a scary thing. But confront it, embrace it, and find a wonderful life awaiting.

A suggestion, incidentially, that brings me to the film at hand: "Open Range". Here is a film that not only celebrates honesty, but embodies it to the fullest.

Which is why, I suggest, it rises above other, recent efforts that attempted and failed at telling a Western. Of course, to get to honesty one must have morals and ethics, standards and beliefs, values and principles--which "Open Range" most certainly does have.

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