Rabbi's Musings

Some people used to say, “The measure of someone is the size of the thing it takes to get his or her goat.” What do you think? Do you know what it means to get his goat? It refers to the sensitivity of racehorses. According to one historian, racehorses are infamously high-strung. Horse trainers learned many years ago that highly sensitive animals like a stall mate, and a goat is one of the most suitable companions for a racehorse. In fact, once a racehorse bonded with a goat, that horse would go crazy if the goat were taken away. On the theory that all is fair in love and horse racing, gamblers used to try to shorten the odds by stealing a thoroughbred's stall mate. The hope was to reduce the racehorse's chance of winning.

From this practice, to get one's goat came to stand for upsetting a person so that there was a complete loss of temper. So, the measure of a person is the size of the thing it takes to get their goat. What does it take to upset you? What does it take to make you lose your temper? How emotionally high-strung are you when you find yourself in a situation with your goat being out of the stall? Another important question: are there certain times when you should get upset? In other words, sensitivity to others demands that we are upset if people are not treated well.
 
I suggest we all spend some time imagining how different we would be if we were more mindful of our triggers. We cannot change the world. But we can change ourselves.