Alan Watts said something to the effect that you don’t go to a symphony to hear the finale.
Gardening just for the tomato or raising chickens just for the eggs is kinda like that.
The perfect tomato will be so for, maybe, one day. Shortly thereafter it’ll either get flushed down the toilet or thrown into the compost pile. If you just want eggs, it’s probably faster to buy them at the store.
Everything’s like that. You don’t raise kids so that you can watch them graduate from college. You don’t eat dinner so you can wash the dishes.
Gardening never starts and never stops. It just is.
Oooo…
7 responses so far ↓
1 Farmgirl_dk // Jun 27, 2008 at 5:42 pm
I have to go off and think about this for a while. I’ll be back later to subject you to my comments.
2 Rian // Jun 27, 2008 at 5:50 pm
Sorry, did I just BLOW YOUR MIND?!
I read something the other night in, I think, “No god but God” wherein he references an Islamic saying that if your virtues don’t overtake your vices by 40, prepare for eternal hellfire.
I’m 42 in August and, apparently, in very deep trouble.
3 Farmgirl_dk // Jun 27, 2008 at 10:19 pm
I don’t know that my mind was blown (you would miss it if it were gone), I just needed to decide whether I agreed or not.
And, after hanging out in my green space for a while today, I guess I have to agree. The act of gardening makes me happy. I will find myself smiling over absolutely nothing in particular, as I’m bent over weeding or transplanting. That could just be a result of the mental illness that runs in my family -or- I’m just really enjoying the moment and the process.
Man, you’re old.
4 Rian // Jun 28, 2008 at 12:05 am
OK, fair enough.
At least I’m not crazy.
5 Rian // Jun 28, 2008 at 12:23 am
No offense to the crazy people.
One love.
6 Farmgirl_dk // Jun 28, 2008 at 8:45 am
Doh! And, of course, no offense to the old people.
Dude, you were up late last night.
7 Darren // Jun 28, 2008 at 4:27 pm
In fact, Mr. Watts was known to have once remarked to his salad companions, “You like that beefsteak? I grew that in, like, five days!”
I think that anecdote appears in his earlier book, “Satori In, Like, Seven Minutes”
Great read. Particularily, his tales as an award-winning speed dancer are not to be missed.
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