Life and times of a new farmer/homesteader
Time well spent? {
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Thursday, February 8, 2007
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I've seen a couple blogs talking about time spent here. I
understand the question, "Is my time spent best elsewhere." The
answer, to me, is yes. And no.I don't have my children living with me. If I did, and as I do when they visit, my children are the most important thing in my life. They are the rest of the time as well, but they aren't my focus when they aren't here. Not in a specific way, only in the grand scheme. This place, this homestead, Hankins Hollow, will be here for them when I am gone. What they do with it will be up to them, but I hope that I can instill a sense of value in property. After all they aren't making any more of it. In fact, if ocean levels are rising, then then there will be less. What I have here could be their livelyhood by the time I am gone. I admit, I wasn't much of a father, but I am there when they need me. They have grown up into fine outstanding young adults, and don't need me much. When they do I am here, or with them at their request. Thing is, they are both online alot. I'm the one relative that watches them there (or, I would guess, here.) I'm the one they chat with, I'm the one they ask questions of, and I'm the one that keeps them from doing anything foolish. No one else in my family really knows how. Both children know that I don't judge, but I do suggest a proper course of action. They are honest with me. Online, children need a guardian. Mine do. I'm it. My blog, my son reads. I know that, and we talk about it when we are together. All sorts of stuff, we talk about. Some good, some not so good. But we talk; on the phone, face to face, or online. My son is seventeen. He has become an admirable young man. He is still, and will always be, my child. I will always feel the need to watch out for, to protect him. The lives we have chosen make it difficult for me to see him everyday, but when I do see him, I try to make it important. Do I get online when he is present? Yes! Sometimes he wants to show me something, or I him. Both of us seem to be the type of people who can read a screen over someones shoulder and not feel left out. It can be much like reading to him when he was young, or him reading to me when he was older. When we are together, we do what we can together. Sometimes, that means surfing the net. You know, it works for us. We discuss what we see. I find I have a couple friends and at least one other relative that can do this. Refer to stuff on the net in a social setting. It's not a bad skill to have. If you can talk in a room with a TV on, or the radio, or the computer, it's better than just "Vegging out." Of course, I have a few advantages. My focus is good, I can read lips (mostly,) I can tune extraneous stuff out, and I can focus. Yes, I know I'm being redundant. It's that important. When we are together, we know that there are times we need to have our independance too. Sometimes, he does his thing and I do mine. In a while, we hang out and talk about what we did alone. Sometimes, as my son and I both have a technical bent, it leads back to looking over a shoulder at a book, magazine, or web page. I have had friends and family tell me I was born in the wrong time. Some say I should have been a young adult in the sixties. Some say the same, but refer to the 1860's, or even the 1660's. As it was, I was born in 1968, and grew up in the "ME" 1980's. I never did quite fit in, in most ways. I do realize that I would rather not live in any other time than now. For one, we have the internet, and computers, and cell phones, and organic food, and mass transit, and all sorts of things that make life easier. We can experience stuff from around the world. News, entertainment, food, tools, literature. We have one of the longest lifespans of any peoples. You know what else? We haven't destroyed it all yet. Global warming, whether or not people think people have anything to do with it, is happening. If we don't try to affect it, without messing up something else, we would be foolish. It might be nature, but it will effect us. And there's always the Nuke option. We didn't do it in the 1950s-1970s, but we still could. Bioterrorism... who can make make the worst bug fastest? What happens if or when it get's out? Natural epidemics? You know, SARS, bird flu, BSE... Man assisted perhaps, but still. Meteor hit? Ice age? Supervolcano? So, maybe it isn't that we haven't destroyed ourselves yet, but that we haven't been destroyed. I don't think it matters that much, as the end result is the same. Still, I look at my children. Maybe they will save the world. I sure didn't. But I'm trying to make up for it. I'm trying to do my part. Organic. Far thinking. Seven generations ahead. Seven generations behind. Trying to leave this world a better place, in some small way. It starts with my kids. It ends with my kids. I'm responsible for my children. I'm responsible for making sure that they walk into the world well prepared. I'm responsible for the values they possess. I'm responsible for how they treat their children. I'm responsible for the tools they approach the world with. I'm responsible for the world they walk into. I'm responsible for my children, and their children, and their children. In this world, I have the tools of this time, and all times before. I chose which will be best, and hope they are the right choice. Some are old ways. Some are quite new. One is the internet. One is the pitchfork. One is the tractor, one is the scythe. One is the radio, one is the candle. I'm not going to use a pitchfork to inform my worldview. I'm not going to harvest anything behind the computer. There is a balance to all. My time behind the computer is no less important, or more important, than my time with a pitchfork. Both are far less important to me than time with my children. But there is no need to exclude time on the computer, or time with a pitchfork, from time with my children. Share your time with your children. Do what they want to do. Teach. Learn. That is time well spent. Peace, Raymond. P.S.: You should see my son, Ryver, drive a tractor. Two speeds: stop, and full out. He showed me what my tractor could do, if pushed. { Last Page } { Page 62 of 181 } { Next Page } |
