“He lives the song he sings just as many of us sing the songs we don’t live.”
–Richard Taylor
It is a subject as old as the Roman poets: trying to live the song we sing. No doubt, as long as members of our race have felt consoled by the comforting embrace of empire, they have felt the snare grip their ankle as they tried to reclaim whatever was felt to them as an authentic life.
This blog is about farming, about the life of working the farm and the subtle ways that that life changes the participant. My farm life is a journey. A journey, if you will, about living those songs I sing. A journey that has taught me to live songs, often heard as if at a great distance, with muted lyrics, songs that once learned help loosen the grip of the snare.
Looking back over these 16 years of posts, certain themes regularly emerge: changes by a birth or death, the cycles of seasons, mistakes learned over and over again, the value of a willing partner, the companionship of friends and family, the rediscovery of the art of observing, the liberating value of work performed.
So too revelations of being more profoundly conservative and liberal than previously imagined. Not the conservative mindset of our chattering classes, with their mania of global commerce, their cavalier resource depletion, and their religious litmus tests. But instead, the timeless conservativism of careful consideration to structure, change, technology, land, and relationships. A growing awareness that progress and change, as needed on a farm, best proceed from thoughtful slowness.
And not the liberalism of our contemporary world, a cultural leveling to the lowest common denominator or the mire of identity politics–an effort to redress ills with broad strokes and imperial power–but a liberalism derived out of observation, of slowness, community, and responsibility, that by those acts, the world observed is seen with very different eyes. A narrowing of one’s focus, a localizing of compassion, can flower to encompass a wider realm.
Odd how this life has given this participant an active tolerance and intolerance concurrently: the former for the beauty and diversity of the natural world of which I am a part, the latter for the bad and boorish behavior of our own acts and the larger self-absorbed modernity.
How any of us loosens the snares that bind us is our own journey, our own song. It is, for me, the agrarian life, or at least my own approximation of how it should be lived, that continues to exercise a power to change. I still don’t know if I am living the song. But those lyrics, once muted, are now heard with greater clarity.
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Starting next week this blog will be split into two blogs. One, as yet unnamed, for these types of farm related musings. The second will be published under the farm name. It will address the specific farm life and business. More details to follow so you can decide which to “follow” as well.
If you are still considering what you might call the ‘other’ blog, the one on farm related musings… the cut of this particular post reminds me of a song. Simple Man, by Lynyrd Skynyrd; perhaps not exactly where you imagine this going, but it’s a set of lyrics worth hearing from time to time.
Looking forward to it, whatever its called.
Not much is going to change on this site, except the name. Mainly a way to separate out the farm information from the weekly blog. Lynard, eh? “Simple Man” of course would be better than “Give Me Two Steps”.
Here are most of the lyrics – I particularly like two thoughts: “‘don’t live too fast” and “forget your lust for the rich man’s gold, all that you need is in your soul”.
Mama told me when I was young
“Come sit beside me, my only son
And listen closely to what I say
And if you do this it’ll help you some sunny day”
“Oh, take your time, don’t live too fast
Troubles will come and they will pass
Find a woman and you’ll find love
And don’t forget, son, there is someone up above”
“And be a simple kind of man
Oh, be something you love and understand
Baby be a simple kind of man
Oh, won’t you do this for me, son, if you can”
“Forget your lust for the rich man’s gold
All that you need is in your soul
And you can do this, oh baby, if you try
All that I want for you, my son, is to be satisfied”
The bass track in Skynyrd’s original is amazing. The song was released on their first LP, and it tracked right after “Gimme Three Steps”… (and GTS tracked right after “Tuesday’s Gone” which is an anthem to listen to when you’ve lost something significant in your life). Hope I’m not sounding TOO much like the fan boy.
Very excited for the growth of this blog. Will be good to have more musings of yours to read. Henry is out here visiting for a month or so. We took him to a friends farm today and picked nettles together to go into a fritatta. Amazing something so prickly and itchy can taste so good once its blanched and cooked with farm fresh eggs and bacon. We were also introduced to Reuben the bull. Very interesting to pet an animal with a horn protruding from its head… Mama hen hatched some chicks right as we arrived. When we came back to check on them again an hour later one of them had drowned in the water bowl. Such is farm life, I guess. Watched a sow feed four piglets their lunch on Mother’s Day. Looking forward to visiting your farm. Reading the blog will have to suffice until then.
Cheers – Matt
Matt,
Thanks. Glad to hear Henry is visiting for a month. I like the idea of the nettle frittata, have to go in search….
See you both soon,
Brian