“Nothing is ever black and white,
not even a black and white dairy cow.“
Koba 88 is standing in a stall on my father’s farm. She’s black and white, and she’s the most curious cow I know. I stand by the feeding rack and she heads straight over to check me out. It makes me incredibly happy, this curious cow.
At the same time, she’s shut in. She doesn’t seem too bothered, but she’s not free. I, on the other hand, am free. But sometimes I’m also shut in, trapped in my own thoughts.
Koba 88 looks at me and gives me a gentle shove with her broad nose. Kobe lives inside four stall walls, but she is not shut in by her thoughts. I am free, but I’m shut in.
Freedom is not a fact, but an experience created by thoughts. The feeling of freedom, for humans and animals, is the central theme in Joyce van Heek’s work, Being Free – (Un)free Beings.
“Nothing is ever black and white, not even freedom “.
By Ellen Temmink,
columnist & farmer’s daughter
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