Is chilvalry dead?

[Carol Dee]

Steve, I hear you. Rant on....
Got to agree that we just need to all be DECENT HUMAN BEINGS.

 

[897tgigvib]

Ya know, I'm a skinny ole ugly hyperthyroid ridden guy with missing teeth, but I would have helped you...right in front of those brawny 33 year old construction workers.

hundred degrees? after i woulda found the locker room and sat down in the shower with ice cold water running!

 

[Carol Dee]

Thanks Marshall. I knew you would.

 

[Smart Red]

Thanks Marshall. I knew you would.

So, is it that we gardeners are a nicer breed of people? Or are we old enough to remember how to be courteous? Just today I watched as a dozen people walked past a woman who was sitting with her head down on a table at the grocery store. A few looked at her as they passed, but pass they did. I stopped and asked if she was ill or needed help. Okay, she was just tired and waiting for her friend to finish shopping, but we both felt better knowing someone cared enough to ask.

 

[Jared77]

So, is it that we gardeners are a nicer breed of people? Or are we old enough to remember how to be courteous?

I think its a combination of the 2 honestly. I turned 36 in July and I know I'm not the youngest on here but I know many are not my age on here either. But I also think that gardeners are slightly different breed of folks. We toil away to create beauty, harmony, and nourishment. How many of us work to have nice landscapes for everybody to enjoy? Because if they were just for our enjoyment we'd put up walls, and hide our efforts in the backyard. But we don't. How many garden groups work to improve public areas? Work on public food gardens in economically depressed areas? All for a love of getting our hands in the soil and sharing the bounty of our labor with others.

How many of us give extra produce away that we've grown? We work hard to produce it tilling the soil, planting seed, weeding, watering, caring for our plants only to turn around and hand over part of our hard work away to others? Be it family, friends, neighbors?

We made all our own baby food for our 1st daughter and we'll be doing it again for our 2nd. I remember a number of times people giving me a great price on apples, pears, squash just to name a few when they found out we were making baby food. I'd ask if they had _____ amount of ______ produce. They'd always ask "What do you want with that many _____?" Id tell them we're making baby food and they'd slash their prices. I never haggled they'd just say I owe this much and I knew I was getting a deal.

Gardeners have a big, patient, and wide open heart. The plants we grow are for enjoyment but for what it takes to get many of them to produce the return on investment might make a few people wonder and why I think it keeps more people from gardening. Plants don't love us back. They don't do silly cute things like animals do. They don't give us companionship, or snuggle us when we're feeling down. They don't protect us, or watch after us. No they totally selfish and will seek to out compete their neighbors to get the most that they possibly can. Yet for some reason we love them, and we want them to enjoy the simple things that plants give us. We want them to thrive so we can enjoy the intoxicating smell of a rose in bloom, or the taste of summer that the first ripe tomato brings us, or the striking colors of their flower.

Not everybody gets it, not everybody relishes in the work, but everybody enjoys what our efforts produce. Funny how that works. Yet somehow I think we wouldn't have it any other way.

 

[Carol Dee]

Jarred ~ You are amazing, you have so many talents. And certainly a way with words.
Oh Dear, I suddenly realized I am old enough to be your Mom! (I bet yours is very proud of you!)

 

[Smart Red]

Very good, Jarred. Almost poetic!

Jarred: "Not everybody gets it, not everybody relishes in the work, but everybody enjoys what our efforts produce. Funny how that works. Yet somehow I think we wouldn't have it any other way."

Right! And don't you often feel like the Little Red Hen? Everyone is available to help you eat from your garden as long as you do the work of prepping, planting, tending, picking, and even delivering. Right now I'm flush with pears and apples. I have several places to gift them as long as I get them there. SIGH!

 

[canesisters]

Jared needs to change his tag line to "Poet in the ambulance"
Well said Jared!

 

[bj taylor]

well said jared!
i'm a huge fan of chivalry. I love when people open doors for others, pick up something dropped, or carry something heavy. just being nice is a special thing and sometimes a rare thing.

 

[Jared77]

Thank you very much for all the kind words. Sometimes things just come out like that.

Carol I hope she is. I'm trying to live by the example and expectations my parents set for us growing up.

I'm very grateful for TEG so I have a place to share thoughts like that.