I got talking to one of the old farmers from the village
this evening. He was coming across his hay meadow at twilight – the one he
mowed on Monday, he told me. And now he’s hoping for at least one more warm,
dry day so that he can get the hay bailed and safely into the barn.
I’d say he was in his late sixties, and was obviously one of
the old sort. I’ve met quite a few of them in my life; I’ve been into their
homes and seen how they live. It’s simple, functional, unprepossessing. They
don’t work predominantly for the money as most people do; they live for their
work. Their focus is the land and its harvest, not the trappings of lifestyle.
They go out in the morning and they come home in the evening, having spent
anything up to sixteen hours sowing, or ploughing, or harvesting, or baling, or
tending the flock, or mending fences, or trimming the hedges, or clearing the
land drains. And if conditions require that they work on into the darkness,
that’s what they do. And if conditions require that they work all weekend, that’s
what they do. And they don't complain. They do whatever it takes to keep the cycle of supply moving.
That’s their work and that’s their life, and if they can make enough to live a
simple one, that’s good enough.
2 comments:
I and many others get so lazy when it comes to work and the time and effort that is needed for satisfaction for work. I really enjoyed your description for this farmer and what to truly work means esp. working with the land.
It's interesting that we often hear the phrase 'work-life balance' these days. That's because we've developed the treadmill system, on which work is done reluctantly and only to pay the bills. To those old-style farmers, there's no distinction between the two.
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