It\u2019s always been important to be clear-eyed and thoughtful. . . in just about any forum. Take work and play for example. I have been a good runner and cyclist, I like to take pictures. I process a lot my thoughts in written form. And, academically, historically, passions ran to English, journalism, and social psychology. On those long, overnight drives to Florida at (what used to be called) Easter vacation, I would do mental math calculations, averaging rates of speed (odometers are never quite accurate!), mileage (converting, again at the time, US MPG to Canadian gallons and dollars), and ETA\u2019s (usually courtesy of our trusty CAA TripTik). So I guess we\u2019d have to throw \u2018stats\u2019 into that mix as well.<\/p>\n
The catch of course is that I was never going to be a pro<\/i> photographer, successful author<\/i>, humanities prof<\/i>, or win the Tour d\u2019anything. Becoming the next Edwin Zimbardo was not in the cards. (Bit esoteric, but next to the great and now infamous Milgram \u2018shock study\u2019, a masterful designer of social psych \u2018experiments\u2019.) In short, I was never going to keep pasta on the table doing any of the above. These were, at most, long-cultivated hobbies. Essentially, play<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Leisure time or otherwise, my interest in human behaviour has remained a constant. While clinical psychology has (happily) continued to be the \u2018bread and butter\u2019 \u2014 if we\u2019re allowed gluten-filled, high fat metaphors anymore \u2014 it\u2019s been the \u2018dividing the world into two camps\u2019 that fascinates. Reductionist, overly simplified to be sure \u2014 but captivating nonetheless.<\/p>\n
The buzz phrase of late has become \u2018evidence-based\u2019. For very good reason, one would like to build one\u2019s practices and beliefs around the science, the data, the verifiable outcome of a particular approach, intervention. Hard to argue with that position. Well evidently not<\/i><\/b>. Which is where the social psychological genie finds its (gender neutral) way out of the bottle. Seems \u2018the evidence\u2019 is a very fluid entity \u2014 wildly eager to be influenced by all manner of factors that have precious little to do with fact<\/i>. What we want (need?) to be true, becomes true \u2014 becomes \u2018the science\u2019. Anecdote replaces tested evidence. Opinion becomes gospel (in too many cases, literally). Experts abound \u2014 and are oh so willing to share the \u2018wisdom\u2019.<\/p>\n
Following the State of the Union night a month or so back, talking heads (on both sides of the great divide) speculated about the gap between the data <\/i>(inflation is stable, even decreasing, crime is on the decline, and the sky is blue) and perception<\/i> (cost of living is killing me \u2014 not to mention those nasty, evil-minded migrants, and the last election was a fraud). What\u2019s the deal? Turns out it\u2019s one of those \u2018it depends\u2019 things. Depends who you ask. Depends where you live. Depends on which side of the bed you got out of. What it doesn\u2019t depend on is \u2018the data\u2019. Those (depending on one\u2019s agenda!) are biased, incomplete, or just . . . wrong (apparently).<\/p>\n
And thus to horses. The apple of my wife\u2019s eye is a four year old mare. The relationship began some two years ago, initially as a gateway back into the world as Covid began to ebb and connection at something less than six feet distant was tentatively allowed. Relative newbies to \u2018vertical condo living\u2019 when the portal closed with a crash in early 2020, we adjusted badly to \u2018containment\u2019 (pandemic- as well as residentially-determined). Despite the idyllic location \u2014 spitting distance from Lake Ontario in a welcoming building on the edge of \u2018old Oakville\u2019 \u2014 my wife\u2019s proclamation came as no surprise, as it mirrored my own sense of entrapment: \u2018I just want to go and shovel s____!\u2019 In deep \u2018garden withdrawal\u2019, reliant on elevator travel as a prelude to going anywhere (including walking the dog at 2:00 a.m.), bounded by rule arbitrariness on all sides, and (somewhat ironically, given that this was immediately post-pandemic) eager to be quit of people for a bit. . . this made perfect sense. 1200 pounds of Equus caballas was just the ticket \u2014 both as a source of said focus for shovelling and insulation from humanity.<\/p>\n
And so began the next iteration of band membership. Preceded by church affiliations, choral participation, group travel, exercise packs \u2014 all with their established \u2018oaths of allegiance\u2019 \u2014 the benefits generally far outweighed the admission fee (sort of). And as with any \u2018organization\u2019, formed around a common theme \/ interest, barns of course are no different. They may look like big horse houses. . . but in reality, the ponies are the justification for gathering. As with sociology of any stripe, humanity, and all the variations therein, forms the raison d\u2019\u00eatre, defines the \u2018club rules\u2019, and, of course, scripts the mythologies and lore \u2014 you know, those things that displace \u2018the data\u2019.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u2018Horse sense\u2019 is something of an oxymoron \u2014 at least in the human context. Horses, as it turns out, are<\/i> pretty sensible. Green garbage bags flapping in the wind, a tractor rumbling down a mow ramp, snorting and lurching, the random crack of a whip \u2014 all, to use the common parlance, trigger warnings. <\/i>To the human, behaviour to be \u2018corrected\u2019, suppressed, sadly, even punished. \u2018Clear\u2019 indications that said 1200 pound psychopathic beast is headed down the rocky road to chaos and erraticism. Signage above the hay net and water bowl, giving the (human) head\u2019s up that strange and dangerous creatures may be about today and ought not to distress. . . about as useful to this prey animal as the caution on the lecture hall door that upsetting topics will be addressed in today\u2019s class discussing Lady Chatterley\u2019s choices.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Happily my wife\u2019s predisposition for listening over pronouncing, eschewing the compulsion to engage the anecdotal over the evidence-based, has stood her in good stead \u2014 mostly with the horses; who, as it turns out, are \u2018speaking\u2019 the only language they have \u2014 behaviour. As with all those other \u2018speechless\u2019 species, there are no bad horses (well, maybe one or two). There are a lot of folklore-schooled, eager to share humans \u2014 whose \u2018behaviour\u2019, again as it turns out, is pretty indicative of what colour state they may hail from, which side of the great divide they would land on (if tossed in the air on a windy day \u2014 as often happens), which \u2018sacred book\u2019 they consulted before pontificating. And so, much s____ has been shovelled . . . and heard. And the relationships thrive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s always been important to be clear-eyed and thoughtful. . . in just about any forum. Take work and play for example. I have been a good runner and cyclist, I like to take pictures. I process a lot my thoughts in written form. And, academically, historically, passions ran to English, journalism, and social psychology. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=594"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":597,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594\/revisions\/597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidhowardpsychologist.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}