When we stayed with Awilda at the property we nearly bought in the rural jungle near Lares, Puerto Rico, we learned quite a lot from her. About her philosophy and attitude towards life. About how she ran her finca. About her goats. We still often think about her and the inherent wisdom that comes from living as a partner with nature for most of her life. One of her pearls of wisdom we still often quote was that we humans are “just like the goats”.

Me and a goat on a rope in Lares

This was specifically in response to how she had helped her daughter through the labor and birth of her grandchildren without any doctor or medical help of any kind. We sort of just stood back, awed by this woman. “Just like the goats” she had said. As if we were actually the crazy ones to think we needed all the fancy tools of modern society.

As we thought about it more, it is really pretty true. We humans are a lot like goats. We give birth. We raise our young. We eat and rest and play, and need a social structure, just like the goats.

Feeding a baby goat out of a bottle

We also have built a huge infrastructure that makes us THINK that we are not like the goats. We use examples of how we wouldn’t have survived without the system, how the system is a net, how technological advancement helps us out in situations where things might go wrong. How we have much larger brains than other animals. How we can do some amazing things unlike other animals. All of these are true. I am quite certain that without the medical system, 5 days after I was born, I would have soon died. As many goats have died. And yet, at its core, we are still animals just like the goats. Living, fragile creatures that need a community to survive.

Sometimes when we think about our move to Puerto Rico we feel a little over our head, out of water, leaving our known infrastructure for the unknown and we get scared. When we are scared we have a tendency toward trying to find some protection. In the modern world these are things like money, insurance, technology, schooling, advanced tools, experts, security systems. Helpful, sometimes, but all made-up human contrivances that make us think we are separate from nature.

Estrella, Awilda and Britton in Lares. They have shown us that if they can do it, we can too!

Underneath it all we are just like the goats. We will figure out how to survive using the tools that are available to us. We’ve been to Puerto Rico many times. People live just fine. They don’t need nearly as much “cargo” and contrivances as we have just to survive the harsh Colorado landscape. It is warm all the time. There is food and medicine dripping off the plants and swimming in the ocean. It rains nearly every day.

If Awilda in her 60s, her stepmother in her 80s and her goats can survive in the jungle mountains of Puerto Rico, we should be just fine in Rincón. We just may need to toughen up a little. And maybe get a goat or two.

We really are just like the goats. And goats don’t need much. It will be nice to try a life that is closer to that more basic, natural existence. We are just like the goats, but with bigger brains. And sometimes those brains do us more harm than good.