On our third night in Port Isaac, the squad and I decided to walk up to the top of a hillside near our house that was rumored to be a common hangout for the local cow population. Upon summiting the peak of the knoll we spotted a sizable herd of cows to try and semi-domesticate. I began going to work finding a suitable cow, which is harder than it sounds. My approach was to yank out a small portion of the finest looking patch of grass I could find and get low to ground. Then I would look the selected cow directly in the eyes and approach slowly while telepathically sending the cheeriest vibes possible.
It took something like five or six unwilling cows before I came upon a bull that wasn’t immediately intimidated by my presence. Although we were told to avoid the bulls for fear of them bodying us, this one seemed simply curious and friendly. I took time with my approach, an outstretched hand full of gourmet grass reaching toward the holy beast. He rejected my nutritional offer but allowed me to get close enough to get my palm upon his forehead and give him a right petting. Elated in my success I went down to boast to the homies, but I found them in the middle of their own attempt to befriend a herd. I made my way down to them and heard Ben and Charlie faintly harmonizing an acapella sequence in the back. I joined in as the lower octave and we slowly sauntered over to the herd of majestic cows. We faced the cows standing shoulder-to-shoulder and preformed the original sequence on loop to the cows in a sweet serenade. The cows were intrigued but did not approach closer than five feet away, so we simply continued our performance as they watched intently. After something like five minutes of harmonized monotony, we bowed to our audience and turned to leave. However, to our surprise, the cows followed us at their safe distance. Thinking this a miracle, I had one of the squad members still around take a picture of our followers and me. We preformed something of an encore and there was much rejoicing.
Though the experience was mainly fun and games, it was one of my first time I felt a real connection to nature. I tried many fruitless times to speak to the cows and received no reaction. However, strangely, the cows responded well to our musical stylings. Perhaps the cows didn’t consciously understand our ballad, but they were most certainly listening. This was interesting to me, as it seems to support the idea that music can be universally enjoyed. Regardless, the experience was once in a lifetime and I wouldn’t have had it any other way.
