When I was overseas recently I had a good long talk with a skilled waller who had recently stepped down from a very successful leadership role in an organization that involved people who built with stone. His wife described his day to day job of trying to get everyone on the same page and deal with awkward people and not offend anyone, as being a bit like herding cats.
Fitting stones together in a dry stone wall (herding stones?) though difficult and challenging is so much easier than trying to get people working together amicably. I'm reminded of something Thea Alvin said jokingly at this year's dry stone wall festival. 'C'mon fight nice guys." We all did.
For the most part wallers are a great bunch of people. Like cats, they do like to go their own way and do their own thing. That doesn't need to be a problem. When we do manage to all come together and work as well as we did at that recent DSWAC walling festival at the U of T property near Caledon, then I think it's an indicatation of how healthy an organization we actually have in Canada. While it may be more like a ten thousand acre ranch, it's at least a place where all us cats are free to graze and be safe from cat rustlers.
