Beating the Odds

This majestic creature is a Yellowstone, Montana buffalo. I took this picture while riding alongside it in the back on my buddies car. I've mentioned our epic road trip last summer in a couple previous posts.

This creature was absolutely massive. I have seen buffalo in nature documentaries but to actually see a full grown bull in person was a very different experience. We, my friends and our car, were dwarfed in comparison.

But for all his majesty, we learned that buffalo were almost completely exterminated by settlers; a population of millions slaughtered frivolously leaving only a handful left to repopulate the great plains.

In hearing the history of these mighty beasts, I realized that for those last few pure bred buffalo to have survived the onslaught of settlement, they needed to have adapted in ways that may have been completely unnatural to their instinctual impulses, forged over million of years.

While humans were responsible for the near demise of this species, I was still able to draw comparisons.

Living is tough these days even if you have a good job, a home, a car. But in navigating all of the various struggles that can present themselves, we mustn't become so conditioned to human conveniences that we lose our ability or willingness to adapt accordingly.

Though forced to the brink of extinction, buffalo adapted. They became wary. Their senses became more acutely tuned to the presence of man. Their cunning to avoid being seen out in the open increased.

It ultimately took federal protection to save the last wild herd of buffalo but they certainly held their own in light of unrelenting pressure and loss of habitat.

Buffalo could not ask for help. People, on the other hand, depend heavily on their governments instead of adapting. If we all looked within and dug deeper for our will to survive, our story would be more akin to that of the buffalo and I'm sure we would have a greater sense of pride, but time will tell what the history of human beings will ultimately be.

As individuals, think of how you can be more like a buffalo. The odds may be against you but surviving is not impossible.