Peaceable Liberal: A Love Story

Once upon a time, there was a gray sheep. Her names was Matilda, and she was lonely. She had plenty of friends in her flock, but it seemed like all of them had found their true loves.

Matilda had not.

Each time the Farmer showed up with a new ram, Matilda's heart leaped within her wooly chest. Would he be the one?

And each time she was disappointed.

Matilda sadly decided that perhaps she would never find love. As the months passed, she found she could be happy without love. She had many things--friends, excellent food, fresh water, her love of mixed martial arts, pastures in which to romp. Matilda put love out of her mind.

One day, the Farmer made some repairs to his fence. He took a break and went to the farmhouse for a scone and some iced coffee. Several of the sheep, Matilda included, ambled over to take a look at the fence and the tools the Farmer had left. The fence smelled of new wood, and some of the tools smelled of oil. These new smells properly sniffed, the sheep began to amble away.

But Matilda saw something on the ground, and her heart leapt.

The other sheep saw a large sheet of sandpaper, but not Matilda. When her eyes locked with the sandpaper's, she knew she had found her soulmate.

Matilda and Howard lived on a liberal farm, and while some members of the flock and some tools in the garage might have wondered about the odd pairing, mostly they were grateful that their friends had found someone to care about who cared about them. Matilda and Howard were happy.

It was with great excitement that the flock and the tools waited for the arrival of Matilda and Howard's first child. Born was a beautiful sheep with the scratchiest wool that ever existed. When the sheep was shorn, the fleece was spun into yarn, but the Spinner didn't know who would want to use such yarn.

It was a beautiful gray, but oh, so scratchy.

The yarn found itself wound onto cones and sold as leftovers from a weaving factory. A lovely couple on vacation bought two such cones and gave them to their friend, a Knitter. The couple asked the Knitter to make them a pair of socks to hang as decoration in their house along with some antique clothes.

The Knitter loved the couple very much, and so she agreed.

The yarn was so happy! It had never dared dream that it would be used by a Knitter! The yarn knew it was scratchy, and it had assumed that no one would dare spent the hours with it required to knit something by hand. The yarn waited, sure that the Knitter would give up.

But the Knitter did not give up.

And when the socks were finished and blocking, the yarn wept with happiness, clouding the water with its tears.