Years ago, we had a pig in the community of Harmony that became a pest. Ironically, this pig was making our community everything but harmonious. The pig came out of nowhere and had been living in our yards for a month or so. It rotated from home to home; I guess you could say it was a homeless pig. One day my mother-in-law, who is basically a kind and gentle person, threw a rock at it. Twice it was hit by a car and reported dead, but the pig was still alive. I learned a valuable lesson from Aunt Naomi’s Pig: never give up.
We discovered the pig belongs to one of the farm workers named Hamp. Unfortunately he was unable to catch it due to a strange accident. It seems he was intoxicated and sat on the lighted kerosene heater thinking it was the toilet. That just hurts even to think about.
The pig decided to have temporary housing in Aunt Naomi’s yard. So it became Aunt Noami’s pig. Aunt Naomi was not at all happy to have a pig live in her yard. But Aunt Naomi’s dogs are nice to the pig, so it felt like it belongs.
The reason this interests me is that Aunt Naomi’s dogs ran after her car. They were all at church when she was at church and anywhere else Aunt Naomi travelled. It has been many years since I moved here, and for all of those years, Aunt Naomi’s dogs always followed her around the community, running after her car.
One day I saw Aunt Naomi’s car, the dogs running in random order, and in last place, the pig. It was visibly in pain, panting and sweating…reminded me of that fat boy in second grade. Bless its heart. It was really trying to keep up with the rest of the crowd; it never gave up.
I thought of the quote, “If you can’t run with the big dogs, stay on the porch. “ Well, not this pig. I have to say I admire this pig for even trying. How many times do we feel as if we have to wait until everything is perfect before we try something different? I have learned that the quicker you try something new, the quicker you learn if it works or not. Best of all we can learn productive lessons. Why not try to run with the big dogs…you may surprise yourself.
