BELOW IS A COMMENT MADE BY HARDSCRABBLE FARMER ON ANOTHER THREAD. IT IS SO GOOD, IT DESERVES ITS OWN POST
I think a lot of people-even here- use the word job as if it were something to aspire to. Working for others in exchange for wages is definitely better than being in the FSA, but not by much. When money had value and companies had loyalty to employees and benefits were a given it was the kind of thing some men were willing to do in order to support a family because they didn’t have the confidence/aspiration/drive/capital required to create something of their own, but these days a job is no more a guarantee of economic security than a college degree is.
Maybe its time people start reexamining the purpose of life and what you do with the limited amount of time you get.
I started out in one of the hardest working, lowest paying positions on earth- as an infantry private. Those four years were an economic black hole, but it gave me the discipline and the confidence to go out in the world and make my own way. I started my own business with my own two hands and a few tools and by the time I was 45 I had amassed enough capital (not to mention a wife and children) so that I could drop out of this rat race. No debt, no worries, no keeping up with the Joneses, just a profound satisfaction with all the choices that I made over the course of my life that led me here.
Today I do what I want to do. I spend every day with the people I love and care for the most. I work with my whole being- mind, body and soul in the outdoors where men should be. I eat better than Gordon Ramsey, sleep the sleep of the just, eshew materialism and there is a line of people who beat a path to my door to buy our surplus production for top dollar and praise me for it. In short, there isn’t a thing in my life that leaves me unsatisfied or with regret.
We have a little cottage on the property that we have tricked out with a chef’s kitchen perched on the edge of a hilltop with a view of the pastures and ponds, where our renters- skiers from the city in Winter, writers on retreat, entrpeneurs who want to get away from it all, pre-retirees searching for their next step- and every last one of them falls in love with this place, how we live and what we do. It is a palpable envy- though not in a bad way- for something most Americans have forgotten completely in their quest for a job, or a career, or their fortune and that’s a life. A real life, where you provide your own sustenance from your own land using your own wits and hands, surrounded by a loving family.
Somehow we got off course. We lost the thread and forgot what the meaning of life is and this substitute- this pale world of I-gadgets and McMansions, insurance policies and anti-depressants, 401K’s and SUV’s has left an entire generation or more in a state of abject defeat. I look out on the rest of the country and see people who have bloated themselves into Macy’s Day sized bodies on poisonous snacks, who scribble allover their bodies with nonsensical tats, who dress like whores or aquire mountains of debt just so someone will notice them for a moment in a sea of dissatisfied malcontents. Most people couldn’t tell you where their food comes from, how their newest electronic toy works or why they continue with this empty charade day after day, but their behavior screams for meaning.
People have stopped living their own lives. They perform for the public like trained bears, posting every last act on Facebook as if that were proof of their existence, jabbering away with their thumbs like deranged mental patients rather than swinging a hammer or holding the hand of the person next to them.
Our whole society, top to bottom is sick, deeply, seriously ill. We went down a path that led to anger and alienation, depression and dissatisfaction, greed and ennui- every act, top to bottom, from TARP to Knockout King is a manifestation of our poor choices and there is no fix for it short of abandoning everything we’ve done for the past half century.
People talk about the collapse as if it hasn’t happened yet when all you see when you look around is rubble. From a distance, at the right angle and in a good light the Colliseum looks brand new, but we all know that it’s just a shell- and a stark reminder- of what was.
Perhaps you’d like to invest in Calamity’s new business – a tattoo & piercing shop.
“People talk about the collapse as of it hasn’t happened yet”, well my good man it is happening in stages and you will know when it happens. Health care and easy access to food will befall us and you will know the real collapse. I have it maybe as good as this guy, but I am not smug about it, as no one knows the extent or the direction, but you plan the best you can. When the good life get hard 24/7, you and everyone will feel the collapse in degrees, that why you have a plan. The FSA will be the most fucked, as they do not lhave a clue.
Admin,
I am so glad you posted this. It rings amazingly true. I have three brothers, all successful in their own way.
One of them is the only one out of the four that did not go to college. For a time he was pissed, but back in the 70’s when we grew up they did not push you towards college if you were not academically inclined, he was not, most likely because he had dyslexia. Funny thing happened over the years he became a master carpenter and has a tight knit clientele that uses his talents exclusively. One Christmas recently he was explaining to me and one other brother how he plans his six to seven weeks of vacation around his clients needs/wants. My other brother and I have worked on a corporate level in construction between twenty-five and thirty-five years each and we were dumfounded. My brother through hard work and determination built a business that satisfied his need and allowed to do what he wants when he wants. Funny how many of us get up early to work long days and somehow forget truly why we are doing it.
Thanks,
Bob.
Great stuff.
Every human has a soul, which is whole and complete, lacking nothing. But instead of getting in touch with that perfection, we’ve been trained like circus monkeys to focus outside ourselves, referencing everything we do, say, and feel based on external cues and circumstances. We’ve been programmed to do this by people trying to sell us stuff, control us, and own us. They’ve used debt to enslave an entire population and society, and they’ve gotten extremely rich.
Western civilization hasn’t been a success. I’ve been all over the world, and the happiest people on this planet are the poorest people. We no longer have health, spirit, morality or ethics. The things that make life good are gone. We’re sick in so many ways, physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. We’ve bought into all the illusions, and are now trapped in the delusions. People must have constant external distraction so they don’t have to ever face themselves or others. It’s not much of a life.
I can’t stand self-satisfied people. They make me sick.
I live with constant regret, only because I know I can do better.
Maybe I am just flawed, and hardscabble is perfect.
I bet hardscrabble is not perfect. Just self-satisfied.
When Hardscrabbles tricked out cottage is full of his FSA relatives, he will know the collapse full force.
If you need a good psychologist, find a bartender. If you need a great philosopher, find a farmer.
Hardscrabble, I’ve very much enjoyed your comments here. Your story about splitting huge white ash trees makes me think you’re in New England. You’re clearly well-read and take time to expand your knowledge. What kind of farming do you do?
A fine post! Unfortunately, it just reminds me once again that this country is not my country anymore; not the country I was born into, raised in and worked in for 76 years. Thanks to loss of political leadership, greed and amorality on the part of a lot of people, the world and our country has and is changing into something I cannot recognize.
Perhaps the whole thing is just too many rats in the box. When you squeeze too many rats (or people) too close to one another, they get testy, greedy and tend to kill off the weak and less evil than they are. Human nature runs amok and raw human nature is not a pleasant thing to observe or experience when outside normal social mores.
In turn, our social mores are slowly breaking down with the increased isolation that our technology is offering us. Instead of personal contact, the vast majority of (especially young) people are now in contact via social media – from email to the various Web Sites that allow such communication, picture posting and sign waving.
Where it will end up or morph into is anyones’ guess but, somehow, I don’t think it will end well.
MA
Envy is the little tip of the iceberg you see as I write these words. I own a job – and what made me pop outta bed for years has become a ‘gotta make the donuts’ groundhog day routine. I’d love to go to work and not want to leave. Although its not fair to slam most newly disappointing careers since this world keeps slipping and sliding and distorting what once was. I remember for years and years, hating Friday afternoons and loving Sunday evenings –
Anyway, great post – I love the unapologetic “I love my life” theme.
Good post, just one issue:
Its a right bitch to start a company these days. I am not talking about the standard woes of being an entrepreneur.
Our government is pretty much waging war on small business owners today. As much as I’d love to custom design some affordable bench top fermenters, the reality is that I’m not going to stick my neck out so some pencil pushing fuckwad in DC can chop it off.
In lieu of entrepreneurial spirit, these days I think people would be better served by focusing on self-sustainability. Same principles, but you are channeling your energies in a slightly different direction.
i liked this post very much. it made me think of this quote from martin heidegger:
“Clearly no age has known so much, or had at its disposal such ready means for knowing everything swiftly and for cleverly persuading everyone, as our age. But clearly no age has understood so little of what is essential about things as our age. And there is so little understanding, not because this age has fallen victim to a general imbecility, but because this age–in spite spite of its greed for everything–resists what is simple and and essential and what promotes involvement and perseverance. Furthermore, this emptiness can spread because in the man of today the virtue of patience has ceased to exist.”
Bravo, bravo, bravo for making this a separate thread.
I once had a job selling those “slushy” machines to gas stations across northern Indiana. (I was between computer jobs). Worst fucking job imaginable. Krist Almighty … the abuse I got!! I did this for about 5 months. I did this shit job because I had two kids to provide for and I really didn’t feel like collecting unemployment.
No big deal!! We ALL have had shit jobs, for shit pay, for shit bosses, in a shit environment. ALL of us. And, guess what …… didn’t it make us BETTER people? Didn’t it strengthen our character? Damn straight it did!!
But, Clam Sammich wants us to shut the fuck up because …. why? Because she believes she should be immune from life’s hardships? What a joke she is … why? ….. cuz she’ll soon find out the joke is on her.
Every human has a soul, which is whole and complete, lacking nothing. But instead of getting in touch with that perfection -AWD
Bingo.
What is the color of the soul?
As invisible as that energy what transverses the wire.
KB, from a scriptural perspective, soul is breath life.
“then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.” (Genesis 2:7, ESV)
We have a body and soul. What God created in man which is in his image, is spirit,
“So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:27, ESV)
So, man was originally a three part being; body, soul, and spirit. What died in Adam on the day he transgressed the commandment of God, was his spirit, and after that time God had to come into concretion to communicate with man, in the form of a burning bush, etc, culminating with the coming of his son, his word made flesh, to redeem the lost state of man.
Man is born dead in sin, Adam made it so. Jesus Christ came to make it possible for man to regain his spiritual connection to God through him.
It’s all pretty spectacular, but it’s also not a mystery. The mystery that had been kept hidden from before the foundation of the world was revealed on the day of Pentecost.
“When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.” (Acts 2:1-4, ESV)
To the point, soul does not complete a person. You can go through life as an empty vessel. It is only by confessing Jesus as Lord and believing God raised him from the dead that we are made whole.
“because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” (Romans 10:9-10, ESV)
There aren’t many people who put their blood, sweat, and tears into farming, one of the hardest jobs imaginable, who don’t believe in God.
Wow, really? I set someone straight on their usage of the English language, and dislikes is all I get?
Tough crowd!