I have always felt a special connection with nature, one that
is shared with very few of my peers. On an average day, I can find happiness
simply by walking outside and lying in the grass with the air of any season
filling my nose. Would I be able to start a farm and live like Kurt
Timmermeister for the rest of my life? Perhaps. I never believed in the idea of
performing work for money and in turn spending said money on my needs or wants. I’ve
often considered attempting to find the ideal location in nature where I could
live with the animals to hunt and gather. Nothing seems to be 100% free of some
form of governmental control or from some incredibly dangerous animals, so I haven't found my location to live quite yet. Now, this may
seem like a wild style of life and you would be absolutely correct to think so. The very
idea of abandoning society and the ones you love in order to live as a hermit in the danger
of the woods is insane.
Kurt’s life seems no more and no less wild in some respects.
The actions he took could be considered equally risky than living as a
hunter/gatherer. For the majority of his days he was alone as well. With a
farm, he risked more than just his wellbeing though. If he failed in his venture, he
would lose everything. After giving up his business in the city and placing all
of his faith in the farm, he relied on the yield of his crops and the stock of
his animals to survive. In the life of a nomad, the difference is that one gives up everything to be
closer to nature and experience the ancestral ways from long before in our
history. The more I discuss the contrasting ideas, the more I realize how
confusing they must sound. Perhaps I have seen too much about the simplicity of
nature. I love the order that exists within the chaos and I feel that I connect
with Kurt in this way. He would see the beauty
in the smallest things about the actions of bees and recognize how orderly and
structured they actually are. The bees would spent all of their days to make
honey to support their hive and of course their beloved queen. They of course would use the most efficient
shapes for their body, the hexagon, to store their hard work. This drew me in
heavily as it enhanced the idea of every species having a particular order to
personalize itself.
We can see this most vividly in the pages where Kurt describes the
regulations and the process of selling your produce at a Farmer’s Market. Like
bees, we as humans have a particular order. Everyone pitches in and does their
part, but the human species just has a much larger number of specialized jobs
to perform. With all of the personalization factors I saw though, the most interesting choices were the ones that our Farmer made to his Farm. I was always wondering if he really made all of his decisions himself though. He became repulsed by his own restaurant's food when he learned how food was prepared for masses of people. After he discovers the fruit trees he owned under the blackberry bushes, he plants more trees to form an orchard as a worthwhile investment for his retirement. I myself love to reflect on the events that occur in my own life and follow the path that will cause me to act the way I will, both in the present and future. Considering your path, you may choose whether to remain on the path you are on or to alter your course. With all of the similarities in views, I am excited to see what the
remainder of this book has to offer. See you all at the end of “The Table.”
No comments:
Post a Comment