The Wisdom of Wolves by Elli H. Radinger
Author:Elli H. Radinger
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780241346747
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2018-09-06T16:00:00+00:00
The Right Moment
Why Waiting Sometimes Brings Us Forward
Never give up. I couldn’t help thinking of what my mother taught me as a child when, later in life, I observed the six wolves that had gathered on the riverbank. An elk cow stood in the water in front of them, her flanks quivering. She had escaped from her attackers into the river, where she was at an advantage with her long legs. To take her down, the wolves would have to swim to her, which was too dangerous, given that she could have kicked out at them with her front hooves. Now the pack distributed itself along both banks, lay down and waited. Success and failure are part of everyday life in the wolf world. Knowing when to take a risk, or when it’s better to sit something out is an important ability of experienced pack leaders.
I recently watched a wolf pack driving a powerful bull elk to the edge of a cliff. They stared intensely at one another, like rivals before a boxing match. If the wolves were to attack, they would have fallen twenty metres into the abyss with their prey. After long consideration they gave up. The possibility of success wasn’t worth the risk. They ran back into the forest, while the bull continued to stand on the cliff edge.
The cow in the river wasn’t so lucky. Every time she tried to climb on to the shore, the attackers drove her back into the ice-cold water. The wolves knew her efforts were wasted. Six hours later they were able to kill their exhausted prey.
We too constantly have to make decisions in everyday life. Anyone with any intelligence knows that there is no point plunging blindly into a risky situation. At such moments you need to pause. The strength of wolves lies in their ability to gauge a situation and then decide how to proceed. Sometimes it’s better to practise patience first of all, to think the situation through and weigh up your options. And sometimes, as with the wolves on the cliff, you have to admit that it makes no sense to take the next step. Then you just have to pull yourself together and start again.
That was how I felt when I gave up my legal career in favour of wolves. With great enthusiasm and the crazed hope of helping justice to victory, I had studied law and become an attorney. The reality of the first three years in the profession almost drove me to me despair. Divorces, traffic offences and crimes. Bureaucracy and frustration. It wasn’t how I’d imagined it. I took stock and wondered whether I really wanted to practise this profession for the rest of my life. After all, it was my precious lifetime. I wanted to get off the treadmill, but I didn’t want to act unthinkingly and over-hastily. So I came up with a plan. I calculated my finances and looked for possible ways of spending a long time getting by with
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