Sheep, Sheep, Sheep

"Sheep, Sheep, Sheep" My grandfather used to say these words, in a rapid, playful whisper all the time. As a child I had always assumed that he was just being silly and talking about the herd animals.
But now that he has passed and I am aging myself, those three repeated words begin to take a different meaning.
Diving deeper into the man my grandfather was, shows me that he was much more than a rural carpenter, sometimes farmer and a family man. I like to think that he was trying to tell me something in his own subtle and unpretentious way.

He was talking about people. And specifically about how people follow each other, nose to tail, without ever thinking for themselves. The masses blindly moving through life with no real purpose, no understanding or questioning of the world around them. They are moved from one place to another to be "sheared" and eventually led to the slaughterhouse. All without the slightest enlightenment about what they could have been or done with the one time privileged of living.

As he got older, as I think most people do, he gained wisdom and became more in touch with the reality of things around him, more substantial. The daily hustle of work and raising children was behind him. And the last years he spent on earth gave him time to reflect, and to share his quiet wisdom with an empty vessel of a grandchild.
Somehow his words dug themselves into my mind back then and shaped how I have viewed things for decades. All without me even being conscious of the influence. Only when I have become "quiet" and can hear the truth around me, can I start knowing what he was engraving on me.

To be yourself. To not follow the herd. To live your life with passion and fire. Because your life is the only thing that truly is your own.
I was at his side when he finally let go of this world. And I thanked him for all he gave and everything he was to me. Twenty years later and I realize that he is still giving.

So I will take up his three little words and walk around whispering "Sheep, sheep, sheep" everytime I pass through a crowd.
And I'll think of him.