We all need our daily dose of Hardscrabble Farmer wisdom. Don’t be eating Cheetos while reading this.
Providing the sustenance for one’s self and family is fundamental to a successful life and a healthy community/nation/state. We wouldn’t think of hiring a contractor to wipe our hind end after a bowel movement or having someone come in from the outside to have sex with our spouse, or love our children for us, but something as fundamental as providing the very food we eat has been outsourced, gladly.
I happen to believe that the root cause of most of our societal ills can be tied directly to the move away from agrarianism and towards urban cosmopolitanism. Can we survive this way? Sure, in the same way you can keep a body alive on life support. Is that what is best for humanity? The answer should be self evident.
(As I write this my wife is preparing dinner and the children are busy doing chores in the kitchen and the oldest walked in from splitting rails, saying that he was starving. My wife said “hunger builds character”)
I probably sound like a broken record and for that I apologize, but human beings are part of the natural world and are not exempt from the limitations of our nature. The more jammed up we are, the more our anxiety increases, like livestock raised in confinement. The lower the quality of our food, the longer the time between harvest and consumption, the more processes between raw and served, the more malnourished we become and nourishment, like hydration is essential to life.
We’re sick. Personally, culturally, politically, spiritually and intellectually because we aren’t living naturally. The worst part is that most of us don’t even consciously choose to live this way, we simply go along with the existing system because of convenience. It’s easy. Like staying in a bad relationship, like bearing the chains of servitude, like hanging on to a job because of the income.
Making the choice to live like we were meant to requires sacrifice. Toys, leisure time, distractions, excitement. Often times it leaves us out of tune with vast majority of our fellow man and aside from the basic needs of any organism, fitting in with everyone else is crucial to how we perceive ourselves. Being an iconoclast or an outsider is a far worse fate than dying of obesity or cancer.
The other day we were all standing outside after a shower and the largest, most colorful double rainbow I had ever seen created a perfect arc over our farm. The scent of lilacs filled the air and all of us, normally a loquacious bunch, stood there in rapt silence. I wondered how many people in the US were tucked into their climate controlled houses watching whatever passes for entertainment these days, guts plugged with overly processed food, their bloodstreams swimming with pharmaceuticals and felt a sense of profound sorrow that this was being missed, not just this one time, but for entire lives.
Maybe hunger will spark a revolution, but I certainly wish that it winds up being the kind that doesn’t involve conflict with others, but instead a resolution with ourselves.
Agreed. I think the single most important thing this country can do to head back in the right direction is to re-localize the food supply.
We are sick .Personally,culturally , politically ,spirituality and intellectually because we are not living naturally….This has got to be one of the dumbest things you have written…. Am I abusing Farmer by telling him the truth.This to me is as foolish as a fool can be and it’s a lie but Lipoh wants me to tell you that you are brilliant.Living naturally has not a Damn thing to do with the problems we face as a nation .When people say and write such nonsense my head feels like it’s going to explode.
Maybe I do come across as abusive ,mean or hateful but I don’t get why any of you would think this drivel has any truth at all.We have a million problems facing this nation and not.one will be solved by us living NATURALLY.Good grief .GOD help us all .Hard Farmer you can think things through better then this and you do have the writing skills .Give it another try.
The “Just in time” supply chain as it evolves and becomes more efficient also leads into the danger of what would normally be a minor disruption or glitch becoming magnified as it cascades down the line until it fractures under its own complexity. Low inventory leads to no inventory in a pinch. Now imagine a society of zombies on SSRI’s all going cold turkey at once……
Wonderfully written. Couldn’t agree more! We rush everywhere, and yet we’re going nowhere. We don’t reflect at all, and in our rush we miss some pretty important moments that we can never get back. We were not meant to live this way.
Don’t underestimate the power of the dark side….
Just ask my buddy SSS.
Hardscrabble,
Wonderfully poetic. Most people who have not done some sort of farming/animal husbandry have little feel for the satisfaction it can bring. When we were kids we had a bevy of goats that we raised for milk and show. We took pride in having several grand champions within our herd. Please cue the goat jokes. Each spring one of my brothers and I were tasked with spreading the manure on the garden, then my oldest brother would till in the free fertilizer. We would hand hoe out the rows and my mom would plant everything under the sun. We always had a glorious garden. Mountains of fresh vegetables that my mom would hand out freely to the neighbors and freeze the excess for the winter. Four growing boys can eat a lot. This ritual went on for years until my mom went to work full time, a casualty of the modern era that says moms should work. Still today one of my brothers and I go over to my mom and dad’s condominium and plant a few rows of vegetables along with some herbs. My brother’s and I all have home gardens, ranging from modest to enormous. These habits, when instilled at a young age stay with you forever. Fortunately they are good habits.
Thank you,
Bob.
The scales will balance when we stop putting weights on one side for favored people.
bb says:
“Maybe I do come across as abusive ,mean or hateful but I don’t get why..”
Whenever you start a sentence with “maybe I shouldn’t say this..” you should listen to yourself.
I’m with Hardscrabble, there is satisfaction knowing that what you put on your table for your family to eat came from your own sweat and toil. The best part of the year is spring when we start picking fresh veggies and fruits for the next six/seven months which provides most of what we eat. Late evenings after work out in the yard to make that happen but worth every minute.
PS – I would hate to have to go through life being as ignorant as bb appears to enjoy being.
T4C ,I think I need to take a break from reading all this doom and gloom. At times I realize the hopeless of the nation and it really brothers me.Then I come here and other sites were people are supposed to be informed and sometimes the people seem no better the the rest.People hear seem to be as clueless
As the rest of the nation on many issues but they think they are smart. How can people be so deceived.?Any way I am not giving up and I’m not leaving HOT LIPS.
Peace out ,instead of calling me ignorant tell me where I am wrong. Don’t be shy .
Stick around BB. Don’t go limp on me now.
Very true Handscramble…which leads me to this:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_13?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=nutrition%20and%20physical%20degeneration&sprefix=Nutrition+and%2Cstripbooks%2C797
Just a humble suggestion for those interested
bb, if we move more toward a natural exsistence instead of say fast food, instant gratification we may just reduce health care cost a little bit. We also may start to see a clarity of thought in more people. We may be forced to interact in a polite manner out of the need for each other skills instead having the bankers politicians cramming their wishs for the masses down everyone’s throat. We may become to busy to watch TV. We may learn to do and think for ourselves. We would be a little better for the move to a more natural state of being
T4C, is that a permanent change of moniker?
mmmm, hot lips
Z-man, a little respect for HOT LIPS, please. We love her for her brain and ogle her with the discretion becoming.
Not only that, Hardscrabble Farmer is a pug man! I am convinced this is him. It sounds just like him.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxBNXoIGzWI
bb says:
“Then I come here…were people are supposed to be informed and … the people seem no better the the rest.People hear seem to be as clueless”
Are the folks out there aware this country is in transition from Super Power to Super Max?