SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE WESTERNER

There is life after rodeo

By Julie Carter

Man wasn't created to spend his life locked in time and standing in one place forever. Time moves on and so does life and nothing drives that point home harder for the cowboy than the sport of rodeo.

In a flashback of the lifeline he is a 20-year-old standing at the bucking chutes waiting for his bronc to be run into place. In a blink of an eye he is standing in the same place waiting for his 20-year-old son's bronc to do the same.

With a knowing eye you can look around any rodeo on any given day and spot the cowboys that "used to ride'em." The sport calls them back to rodeo after rodeo, year after to year, to be part of something that once fed an inner calling at some point in their lives.

If they can't still be a contestant, there remains a need to soak up the sights, sounds and smells created by those that are. From the broncs kicking in the chute during the national anthem opening to the last slamming gate signifying the end of the bull riding, it is all encapsulated into a familiar memory that plays like a recording through their entire life.

Many who once were heavily involved in the sport find others way to stay tied to it. It is hard to find a stock contractor, announcer, rodeo judge, producer, rodeo secretary, stock hauler, tack salesman etc. that was not at one time a contestant themselves.

When they no longer can compete in the sport, rodeo used-to-be's will sacrifice the adrenaline rush that comes with those precious few seconds in the arena to find new ways to let the sport touch them. Or they can become team ropers.

If they have kids they become the next generation on the road. Youth rodeos are continually raising and training a new segment of rodeo America.

If the kids are grown and gone or sometimes if they are not, "retired" competitors will find a job of one sort or another attached to the sport. For me it is behind a camera and with a keyboard. I photograph and write about it at every opportunity. It's not the same but it is what I can do for the sport and for me.

As one former rodeo bull fighter recently told me, it's a hard trip down from the rush of the "in the arena" to standing behind a microphone announcing. I understood what he was saying but quipped to him that at least rodeo was finally paying me instead of me paying it.

Philosophical wisdom makes every attempt to sooth the beast within that was once the driving force behind the dedicated rodeo competitor. So today you get a little philosophy.

Life is like the coffee in our cups. It represents jobs, money, position, family and the other things we strive to collect to ourselves in a lifetime.

The cup, whether it is tin, ceramic, or of fine porcelain, simply contains the coffee but does not define the quality of it.

We have a favorite cup but usually we want a better cup. We frequently change the color, shape, size and personalize them. We have clever sayings and pictures printed on them.

We try to make a statement about ourselves by the cup from which we drink our coffee.

Being the humans that we are, we find places in our life where we concentrate only on the cup and fail to enjoy the coffee.

God help us all to not forget to enjoy the coffee each and every day of our lives.