I’m Bob Seay with another book byte from High Plains Public Radio. This segment is the second of three commentaries on the book, “Running with Sherman,” by Christopher McDougall.
The subtitle of this book, “How a Rescue Donkey Inspired a Rag-tag Gang of Runners to Enter the Craziest Race in America”, makes it sound almost like a Bad New Bears kind of story. In some ways, McDougall’s book is a hero’s journey, like Harry Potter or the original Star Wars. We find our hero, in this case a donkey, living in living in squalid conditions. He meets a mentor, Christopher McDougall, who proposes a call to action, in this case to compete with other teams of humans and donkeys to save the galaxy. Okay, Sherman doesn’t actually save the galaxy, but the heroic donkey does provide an opportunity for personal growth for others as they work with him. It’s a “in saving others, we save ourselves” kind of thing.
Sherman’s main obstacle is his traumatic past. His original owners were animal hoarders with more creatures than they could care for. When McDougall finds Sherman, the donkey can barely stand. Forget about a marathon race. Even after having his hooves repaired, this animal couldn’t even walk across an asphalt road. I have never trained a donkey, but McDougal’s account of Sherman’s training sounds a lot like how I have learned to work with students. You must meet them where they are, not where you wish they were.
McDougal’s first task is to gain the trust of this abused animal and help him recover physically and psychologically from his abuse. McDougall uses a technique he calls “The Tao of Steve”, a philosophy created from, and I quote, “Zen Buddhism and those twin pillars of sexy self-command, Steve McQueen and the Six Million Dollar Man, Steve Austin.” Like all talented storytellers, McDougall introduces this concept in a seemingly unimportant and unrelated way. In this case, it was how he met and eventually persuaded a woman who, as McDougall describes her, was way out of his league, to become his wife. This is not pickup artist stuff, although all of us could take lessons in cool from Steve McQueen.
This is about the three B’s:
Be desire-less.
Be excellent.
And be gone.
“Done right,” McDougall writes, “the Tao of Steve makes you forget the future and focus on the moment.” He also noted “If I’d expected anything in return, there’s no way the Tao would have worked.”
McDougall wooed Mika, his beautiful future wife, by setting his desires aside and instead focusing on her love of African music. He then gave her CDs of African music that she enjoyed. Then he left her alone with the hope that she would seek him out. She did.
McDougall applied these same concepts, rebranded as “Donkey Tao”, as he nursed Sherman back to health and eventually started training him for the race. Sherman had to think the training was his idea, even if he had no idea why he was being asked to walk down paths, to cross creeks, or to otherwise comply with his human partner’s wishes.
As teachers, parents, or bosses, we have this idea that we have to drag people along if we are going to accomplish anything. But, as McDougall noted, “For Donkey Tao to work, I couldn’t push; Sherman had to pull.” That doesn’t mean the donkey couldn’t be enticed or even maneuvered. But he had to think it was his idea.
This book series is about the connection between humans and the natural world. But as I read this book, I kept thinking about all of its implications for leadership and education. Humans often struggle with our environment and with one another simply because we push instead of allowing them to pull. Rather than accepting people or animals as they are and finding ways to build from there, we tend to push to conform them immediately into what we wish them to be. That doesn’t work with animals. It certainly won’t work with humans.
For HPPR, this is Bob Seay.