Horses and Donkeys

The power of the ass

Back in school, an instructor led us in an activity. He pulled out a bag of plastic toy animals. The class was told to pick one that we related to.

I always sat as close to the door as possible. Unless I'm leading, that's my place in the room. If I neither trust the person at the front nor the group around them, I want to be the first one out the door if things go sideways.

This tactical survival advantage didn't always help. On this day? The only plastic toy left was a donkey. An ass. It was perfect. It was me. After playing with the animals, embodying them and relating to each other in playful animal ways (theatre school is nutty) we had to talk about our relationship with the beast we 'picked'.

When it came to me, all I could do was shrug.

> *Pretty self explanatory don't you think? I'm an ass.*

I said that proudly. I was a proud ass. The notion of that is remarkably foolish. Pride is a ridiculous sentiment. One minute I'm great. The next? Not so much. The only real problem with prid…