Alpha's

Stepping out of the normal posting here, to add something I find relevant to being a Self Reliant Woman.... being an Alpha female.

Alpha's in animal packs are a bit different than in human packs. As in wolf packs. there is one alpha male, usually the strongest/oldest, and one female alpha, usually his mate. There may be a Beta, but he knows his place, and may or may not take over if something happens to the Alpha.

I've watched my chickens. I have 12 hens and 3 roosters. Only one rooster is the alpha, and all the hens accept that.. and so do the other two roosters! I need only one rooster to keep the hens happy (and the eggs fertile when I'm ready to incubate), but I've kept the other two for this first winter, to insure I have a rooster in the spring. The alpha keeps the other two away from 'his' hens and will attack if they try to jump one of the girls. There is also an alpha hen.. she gets to eat first if the choice food is limited (table scraps) and will chase the other hens away. If the alpha male does, one of those other two roosters WILL become the alpha. It's called the pecking order :) ... however, when *I* enter the coop, *I* am alpha over all of them.. I am the giver of food and the protector.

Going to human 'packs', there can be several alpha's, but only one main alpha. The alpha is who all others defer to look to for decision making, and that isn't always the strongest, but usually the wisest. It's not necessarily the one who takes physical action. Someone mentioned Rambo, and yes, he was the alpha within his group (or alone), but remember his commander (Richard Crenna) was HIS alpha! Think of a county (hey, I'm rural... lol)... A county has many townships. The county will often a manager, but so does each township. Alphas with a higher alpha.

What I see coming, are small towns, like Jericho. Now, Mayor Greene was an Alpha. Even when he was no longer mayor, he was STILL the alpha, as those who really needed decisions still went to him, not Mayor Gray. Anyway, the mayor would be the head alpha, but the lower, functioning parts of the town, would have their own alphas. In MY little town, our alphas are the Fire Chief, the head of the EMS unit, the guy who owns the store, the custodian/handyman of the town, and the Supervisor. The Supervisor was elected, and so far is doing good.. why? because he let's the other alpha's function as alphas within their own 'kingdoms'! In a true time of crisis.. take a guess who the real alpha will be? (I'm not going to answer, I'd like to see the guess's in the comments).

Most Alpha's are leaders because others follow them. I am the Alpha in my family. My parents understood this. I am the fourth youngest of five.. but I was always the one the others turned to.. when it came to 'core family' issues. They might be alpha's within their own family, but not when ti came to the core family. My mother chose ME as her executor before she died, and I became the head of the family when she did. Now, I don't exercise that dominance with my sibs, unless I have to... like when decisions had to be made regarding her estate, and MY word was final.

I AM an ALPHA. I have always been an Alpha, even when it was only me. One of the major issues with my previous relationship (Peter), was just that. It started with Alpha male & Alpha female.. as it should, an equal balance of power. Even though I was use to being THE alpha, I was willing to let him have that spot for the sake of peace, as I was still the Alpha female. However, he wasn't content with that. I was always a 'threat' to him. He had such low self esteem, that he had to relegate me to a Beta position, even when there was no other alpha female. I couldn't accept that, for very long. It takes two alpha's.. a shared leadership of the household. Our household fell apart.

Even my ex-husband, my sons father, accepts my alpha role in our family, and after 30+ years of being divorce STILL has me on his account and in charge of his will. He knows that my decisions within our family will always be for the good of the family.