1,000 wet cows in the dark

On my way home tonight I drove past a feedlot. In Iowa. Can you believe it?

Only I couldn't see the cows. I've seen the confinement many times before and there are just hundreds and hundreds of cows eating themselves to death calmly every day.

But tonight, I noted that I could only see a dozen or so of them as it was pitch black and the night smothered the few yard lights. 1,000 cows are out there in the dark.

And they had to be soaking wet, too -- it's been raining for two days, supposed to rain two days more...

1,000 soaking wet cows lowing in the pitch black night. Is this the most miserable place you could imagine, I wondered? Wet, dark, laying in the mud, the smell, probably cold...

Or, I wondered, is it not so terrible after all? Yes, you're wet, it's dark, but you know what's out there -- your 999 closest friends. Sniff, sniff -- there's Bessie laying in the slop next to mine. Sniff, sniff -- there's Dolly over there. Community.

Commoonity...

Hmm. Who knows.