It doesn’t appear as though this farmer will ever suffer from writers block. Then again, I am sure I will be forced to eat my words sooner or later – after all, that’s the way the world works, right?!
What do I mean? Well, Ying-yang, of course and while I hope I will never experience a typing drought comparable in length to some of my extensive emails, today I have been struck over and over by this ancient Chinese philosophy. Take the following examples:
It must have rained two or three times today, but we also had some brilliant sunny breaks.
Our potato plants are looking as good as they ever have…from afar. Closer inspection over the last week or so has revealed an ongoing problem with Colorado potato beetle, which despite frequent squishing doesn’t seem to want to go away.
I was elated when I saw my neighbour come lumbering up the laneway with his high-hoe to finally complete our pond and pump-house site…only to see him drag the equipment back out again an hour later because the machine had broken down.
Due to our current workload I wasn’t looking forward to entertaining our weekly kids camp this week, especially given the weather forecast. It turned out to be a great day however, as the group had a blast helping me clear out the rest of our garlic scapes!
And to be honest, I’ve been feeling anxious about how slowly our peppers and eggplants have been coming along; then I discovered that we may have carrots big enough to bring to market!
Is the universe just toying with me or is this duality an inescapable reality of our existence?! Let’s pan the camera a bit further out and look at some more examples:
Despite a level of global environmental consciousness unprecedented in recent history, we’re still faced with seemingly insurmountable global ecological challenges.
Just as organic farming and farmer’s markets are enjoying a renaissance, GMO crops and pesticide farming are also growing in total acreage worldwide.
Never before have so many people been so materially well-off around the world, and just the same it seems as though the poor and disenfranchised are becoming even more so.
While we’re having a good wet summer so far in the Great Lakes Region; the U.S. southwest, Australia and other regions are enduring harsh droughts.
We’re spending more money than ever of health care in Ontario with no end in sight to cost increases, and yet I don’t think in general we’re getting any healthier – in fact probably quite the opposite.
Perhaps never before have we had such a plethora of arts, culture and entertainment at our fingertips and yet I’m sure we have a higher percentage of our population than ever before taking anti-depressants.
Perhaps we always have and always will be subjected to duality in this universe, but will the polarization of good vs. evil, rich and poor, natural vs. chemical agriculture, accomplishment and depression make life intolerable for all but alucky few? Why can’t we all just enjoy a moderated amount of goodness offset by the occasional set-back and thus eliminate the emotional see-saw that life has become? Will things necessarily get worse for some as they get better for others? Will success always come with a dark side; development march hand in hand with poverty?
Am I alone here in this thinking? (As usual I am putting myself out there asking heavy questions to some 800 names and email addresses that represent friends, customers and family members…this must be the anti-thesis of my typically emotionally introverted self?!) Does this have anything to do with food?
Perhaps not, but I suspect that each one of you probably knows someone that has struggled to manage their emotional swings or found it hard to deal with the seemingly never ending cycles of success and failure, good days and bad. “When will it stop?” we might ask, “Is there such a thing as eternal bliss?! Does Nirvana exist?”
I wish I knew…but I don’t. After all, I’m just a farmer…seeking some form of enlightenment.
But none-the-less, I’ve been around a bit and it seems to me that beyond the obvious things that are all well within our reach – eating well (local-organic-vegetarian for me please!), getting a bit of exercise (team sports are fun! Big game for NEO FC this coming Thursday…), some solid social contact with good positive people (camp fire anyone?!), being respectful of our elders and good examples for our children and using our social, economic and environmental capital to bring about positive change (can anyone think of better role model in our time than good old Gandhiji?!) – there’s really only one other source of inspiration that I have come across that held any promise of bringing about an end to duality and, ultimately, bring on everlasting peace. Buddhism.
This is not to say that Buddha’s teachings may not have manifest themselves in other places, faces or religions. In fact, if the Dharma has found its way into your life in some way (non-sectarianism was a value Buddha himself upheld) I would love to hear from you and to hear what gives you the strength to get out of bed each day and face this uncertain world. For the good our entire organic community, I’ll reprint the best bits of advice that I get back and share them with you in my next newsletter. But for now, I’ll be taking comfort in the fact there probably is a Middle Path, a state of being beyond the duality of Ying-yang in which we all may find calm, comfort and well-being.
Farmer Ryan
