Candie Garrett

SPEECH 101

Commemorative Speech

03/2004

THE COWBOY

        “Why does he ride for the money?  Why does he rope for short pay?  He isn’t getting anywhere, and he’s losing his share.  He sure must be crazy out there.”  This is an excerpt from a Garth Brooks song called “Rider’s Lament.”  It is a statement that questions the life of a cowboy.  The cowboy has a job that is beneath most people’s standards.  He herds cattle.  He brands them, protects them from rustlers, and drives them to their shipping points, but he is so much more than that.  He is a loner, hardly ever refined and not the best family man.  His chosen occupation is more of a way of life than a job.  He may appear haggard to the eye, but he appears wholesome to the heart.  The cowboy is a rare breed, wild yet gentle, and uncontained by the barbed wire of the world.

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        So, why does he ride for the money?  Simply put, he doesn’t.  He rides for the passion.  He rides for the privilege.  He rides…for the pride, the pride that comes from strength in character, simple honesty, and a soul full of virtue.  Only a man with such passion, privilege, and pride can possess the endangered art of chivalry and an aura of heroism that bucks the contemporary ways of today’s society.  To ride and to work for merely money is above the standard of the cowboy.  

        Why does he rope for short pay?  He doesn’t do that either.  He ...

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