Sheepdogs!

The phenomenon of celebrity is pretty odd when you think about it, especially as an outsider. Being a Monday evening, I walked quickly through the rain to the Royal Geographic Society for the weekly lecture. I got there about 20 minutes early only to find that it was standing room only inside the grandiose theater. Turns out the speaker was Nick Crane, just another guy to me, but a renowned television personality to the Brits. He has hosted several documentary series, and his most recent, Great British Journeys, was the subject of the talk.

One thing to come out of the talk was the fact that the English countryside is experiencing a rebirth as a tourist destination. For decades, people have looked at the English countryside as a worn out vision of the past, dreary and dull. So what's the difference now? Well for one, I would imagine it's a sort of cyclic thing - we might be alternately intrigued by and then bored by our own backyard. But I think the larger issue is that we're starting to understand that our world is finite, our actions affect the environment, and we might as well invest in our own surroundings.

He interspersed clips from the show with his talk, and here is my one major conclusion from the evening: sheepdogs are quite possibly the coolest things ever. Have you ever seen one in action? Well, get on that, it's amazing. As they are being herded around, the sheep appeared constantly to be on high alert, as if day after day of being rounded up by the same dog did nothing to dull the terror. What, Spot over there didn't actually attack me the last 5 million times we walked from that barn to this gate? Well today could be the day. That was me being a sheep if you missed that.

And without further ado, I've hunted down this priceless clip of a sheepdog demonstration from the Black Hills National Sheepdog Finals. If there is one thing you do today, it should be to watch this clip. If you're having any self-esteem issues, this should help, and please keep in mind that sheep have feelings too! Enjoy.