Hello, my name is Andrea Elise and I live in Amarillo, Texas.
Let’s start this book byte with a quote from Robert Browning. Browning once wrote: “A man’s reach should exceed his grasp, or what’s a heaven for?” In other words, we can try all we want to achieve our goals, but if they are too easy, there is no challenge.
The quote reminds me of a book I just read called Running with Sherman by Christopher McDougall, published in 2019. The McDougall family had moved from Philadelphia to rural Eastern Pennsylvania after Chris transitioned from being a journalist to living a country life.
Sherman is a neglected donkey that the family decides to adopt and rehabilitate. The challenge to rehabilitate Sherman is so great that there are many times Chris wants to quit. And yet, he continues to reach.
When he first began working with Sherman, Chris had no clue about what he was getting into. It took learning basic traits from the Amish in his community to fill in the blanks.
For example, one of the Amish tenets is to slow down and savor the present world. They debate each new event or item for its usefulness in order to teach them patience, self-control and empathy.
The Amish rarely use law enforcement because they have learned the above-referenced qualities and have incorporated them into their lives and the lives of their animal companions.
Chris meets a young man, Zeke, who is suffering from depression. Zeke bonds so quickly with Sherman that he begins to heal. We know from research and perhaps personal experience that petting, holding and feeding animals can release the feel-good hormone oxytocin in our brains.
Think about oxytocin combined with outdoor activity, communing with others and a relationship with an innocent animal, and you have something very special.
Did you know that nothing we have done to domesticate donkeys has weakened their instincts? I didn’t know that. One of the top instincts donkeys have for their survival is to be in front and center, and to scan the world ahead for possible mishaps. They have wonderful peripheral vision as well, and they are smart and independent. They seem to take the attitude of “united we stand; divided we stall.”
One thing donkeys seem to need is a job. Therefore, Chris decides to train Sherman and his pals, Flower and Matilda, for burro racing, a sport where humans and donkeys run together for many, many miles and at different elevations.
The ultimate goal is for Chris, his wife, Mika, Sherman, and two other donkeys and their riders to enter the World Championship race in Colorado, a destination that will rise to around 11,000 feet.
There are many interesting and colorful people who help the family along the way through their humor, insight and sheer perseverance. These individuals include damaged but strong and determined women, and people who have dealt with and are still managing unspeakable pain.
I won’t give away the ending of this charming and inspirational book. However, since I started with a quotation, I will end with one that Chris provides at the beginning of the last chapter. It is from the Gnostic Gospel of St. Thomas and goes like this:
“If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.”
This is Andrea Elise for the HPPR Radio Readers Book Club.