In short: yes they are. Yep, I am talking about the kind that look after sheep and carry a staff with a hook on the end and live in a hut. I mean, those are all things I’m assuming shepherds do.
In our morning meeting today, we realised that, bloody hell, there’s a lot of news about shepherds right now and we’re totally into it and we should absolutely write a story about it, because that’s the obvious thing to do and our readers, quite frankly, deserve to read more about shepherds. So here goes: here’s all the reasons why shepherds are a thing.
You can apply to be one, like, right now
The National Trust is advertising for a shepherd (or ‘shepherdess’) to roam the hills of Snowdon, north Wales, and keep the 1,600 sheep away from parts of the mountain that need to be conserved. You might be thinking, Hang on, I thought Bryn Griffiths was the shepherd of that area? And, reader, you’d be totally right, but it’s proving to be a lot of work for Bryn and now they want someone to cover the weekends and evenings.
So if you reckon you could hack it, apply and let me know how you get on, but don’t worry if you don’t make the cut, because you can volunteer as one instead.
Fun fact: Rebecca, our editor, got ‘Shepher’ in a secondary school ‘What career is for YOU?’ type test, so I’ve sent it her way, just in case she fancies a slight career change.
Even Taylor Swift wants to be one
True story. Yesterday Tay posted an Instagram video of her trying to reason with some sheep but getting nowhere. Which shows, sure, you could be one of the most successful female popstars ever with legs insured for $40 million, but that don’t make you no shepherd.
They’re pretty much Twitter famous (‘twamous’)
You might have heard of James Rebanks, the Herdwick shepherd, who’s just brought out a book about his rural life as a shepherd in the Lake District (his family have farmed the same area for over 600 years). He’s got a solid 60.7K followers on Twitter, whom he tells all about his daily life like, at the moment, birthing lambs.
What’s a guy got to do to get a blue tick around here?
There’s a ‘Shepherd University’
Unfortunately, it’s not what you think. This isn’t a place where shepherds go to learn all things sheperdy; it’s just a normal uni in Sheperdstown (I kid you not), in West Virginia, USA, that happens to have a ridiculously misleading name. Shame.
The film world loves shepherds and sheep
I’m talking about the imminent release (1 May, FYI) of a new adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s classic novel, *Far From The Madding Crowd. *It’s all about a female farmer owner (REPRESENT), played by Carey Mulligan, who has to pick between three different suitors. One of which is, wait for it, a bloody sheep farmer played by Matthias Schoenaerts, who is totally buff. You do the math.
There’s some fit shepherds about
We’ve established one fit shepherd (see above) but it doesn’t necessarily have to be their occupation to qualify. I’m happy to spread the net a little wider and go for surnames, like presenter Ben Shephard (I know the spelling’s different, but give me a break, I’m writing about shepherds, here) who is, let’s be honest, hot.
After this, I was a little stumped for any more and went on a website that lists all the famous people with that surname but I didn’t actually know any of them, so it’s just the one for this section but let me know if I’ve forgotten any. Please. Anyone?
Shepherds are instilled into our lives from a very young age
Um, hello, nativity play, anyone? You know what I’m on about.
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Follow Chemmie on Twitter @chemsquier
Picture: Eugenia Loli
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.