Our daughter recently had an opportunity to attend a track camp in LA. I drove her and we stayed for a few days while she attended camp.

Everyone kept asking me why I would want to go to LA. I actually like the city as a place to visit. It gives me fresh perspective. Most of us are afraid of what we don’t know. We build a case around unknowns in our minds, while never having seen it. We form judgments without experience.

This happens between city and country folk I think. We tend to imagine what the other’s life is like and then form our thoughts and perceptions from that imagined baseline.

I actually found quite a bit of beauty in the city. It was far from my normal, but I found that I could appreciate people and places that weren’t like me. I also could see how easy it would be for city people to form judgments about ranching.

In fact, two girls mentioned to my daughter how cows were ruining our environment. My daughter offered her perspective and how we live. It was difficult for the girls to imagine. They could only view cattle as biohazards.

We could become frustrated or we could understand their current mindsets and seek to build bridges. Unfortunately, some of the population sees ranching as cruel and harmful. Sadly, there are some who give ranching a bad name. However, overall, ranchers take pride in caring for cattle while simultaneously stewarding the land.

We’d love to be a part of creating a healthy mentality toward the cattle industry. We work diligently to provide the best for our cattle and land–we’d like others to know that it isn’t a cruel animal factory, but a nurturing environment.

The city and the country have the opportunity be a thriving, symbiotic environment.