Several years ago, videos of goats screaming like people hit the internet and became an obsession. People shared the videos of the goats just plain screaming, or cross-cut them into videos of people singing opera or missing a high note in “Let it go” in Times Square on New Year’s Eve (you know who you are, Adele Dazeem).
Those were simpler times.
These are a few of my favorite goat videos:
And relating to singing:
(Stick around till the end for the final 3 chords – it’s hilarious)
I recently read that, while making the movie Don’t Look Up, Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Gad kept calling Meryl Streep the GOAT. Meryl, being even older than I am, thought they were calling her an old goat, and took it with pretty good humor; they had to tell her that GOAT meant
GREATEST OF ALL TIME
But really, if they’d been calling her an actual goat, would it have been so bad? Think about the attributes of goats:
- Curious and inquisitive
- Mischievous
- Independent
- Agile
- Will eat anything they can put in their mouths
Sheep, on the other hand, tend to be docile, stay in their flocks, are playful but cautious, aren’t as agile, and graze on whatever is on the ground in front of them.
The term “separating the sheep from the goats” refers to separating that which is superior from the inferior. It comes from the biblical reference in Matthew 25:31-33
All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left”
Consequently, we think sheep are more valued than goats. But as performers, do we really want to be sheep? (I’ve been to buffets provided for singers, and trust me, we’re more like goats.)
There is value in caution, in being calm and part of a group, but, in general, I believe that:
In a world full of sheep –
Be a goat!
