davaroo
Garden Ornament
All Men Are Kings Before Potatoes.
This has become something of a catch phrase for me, lately.
(Some of you may recognize it as an adaptation of Herbert Hoovers famous quote, "All men are equal before fish.")
Few activities are as fulfilling as gardening. It is simple, often laborious work, but it gives you time to think and the results are immediate. Sinking a spade into the soil and turning the earth offers "real-time" feedback; the smell of the soil, the twinge of unused muscles awakening - your results are at once timely and tangible.
The Earth does not complain or talk back, either.
It knows nothing of negativity... you work, it complies.
It is simple, basic.
It should surprise no one to learn that I am inspired by Henry David Thoreau and his classic auto-biographic opus, "Walden." In that book, Mr. Thoreau left the hectic, burdened world of 'civilized' people to live a simple, agrarian life. His experiment ultimately proved that whether one is a king or a pauper, all are on equal footing when their feet are in the soil.
The potato, looking up from it's bedded mound, sees only the man who made it spring forth. It knows nothing of social status or degrees; politics and upbringing mean nothing to it.
In it's eyes, this creature, Man, must surely be regarded as a King.
Gardens are also the epitome of dreams, since they are dreams, realized.
All gardeners are planners and people of vision. They schedule, organize and endlessly rotate the features of their garden, manipulating the earth for one goal:
To prepare it for the greatness to come.
By deliberately making their visions bear fruit, they hold in their hands the core of all achievement.
Finally, I cannot escape the notion that cultivating your own food is the purest distillation of the Human Charter I so often speak about. That Human Charter, to "GO, DO BECOME!" is at the core of every garden... and every gardener.
- You GO to the Earth laid before you, and you embrace it. There is no sitting down and hoping with the garden... you must get up and go there.
- You DO, by planting and watering, cultivating and nurturing until it produces that which sustains you. "Garden" is an action word.
- By these things, you BECOME more than if you had you simply dreamed or wished for something to happen.
This culmination of vision and applied effort, this "becoming," is the highest purpose man can attain. In the garden, you generally work alone and it succeeds only because you make it succeed.
It is the golden paradox of the garden that it's basic, unfettered demands also make it a life-changing force. People often scorn the garden as oafish, something for rubes or the unsophisticated. But, nothing is farther from the truth.
What they cannot see is that by calling forth the powers of the Earth, we fulfill the core need of all humanity to GO, DO and BECOME.
In the garden, you meet the expectations of mankind to do something useful with yourself...
SO, if you are feeling like you are wasting your life and getting nowhere, or are unfocused - don't buy another self-help CD, or pay for more sessions with some "guru." Instead, shed those things, and go dig in the soil. Plant some seeds and nurture them to fruit.
By doing so, you will be refreshed in both body and spirit and will see things in a vastly different way. Your purpose will become clear and you will learn what the potato has known all along - greatness is, indeed, within you.
This has become something of a catch phrase for me, lately.
(Some of you may recognize it as an adaptation of Herbert Hoovers famous quote, "All men are equal before fish.")
Few activities are as fulfilling as gardening. It is simple, often laborious work, but it gives you time to think and the results are immediate. Sinking a spade into the soil and turning the earth offers "real-time" feedback; the smell of the soil, the twinge of unused muscles awakening - your results are at once timely and tangible.
The Earth does not complain or talk back, either.
It knows nothing of negativity... you work, it complies.
It is simple, basic.
It should surprise no one to learn that I am inspired by Henry David Thoreau and his classic auto-biographic opus, "Walden." In that book, Mr. Thoreau left the hectic, burdened world of 'civilized' people to live a simple, agrarian life. His experiment ultimately proved that whether one is a king or a pauper, all are on equal footing when their feet are in the soil.
The potato, looking up from it's bedded mound, sees only the man who made it spring forth. It knows nothing of social status or degrees; politics and upbringing mean nothing to it.
In it's eyes, this creature, Man, must surely be regarded as a King.
Gardens are also the epitome of dreams, since they are dreams, realized.
All gardeners are planners and people of vision. They schedule, organize and endlessly rotate the features of their garden, manipulating the earth for one goal:
To prepare it for the greatness to come.
By deliberately making their visions bear fruit, they hold in their hands the core of all achievement.
Finally, I cannot escape the notion that cultivating your own food is the purest distillation of the Human Charter I so often speak about. That Human Charter, to "GO, DO BECOME!" is at the core of every garden... and every gardener.
- You GO to the Earth laid before you, and you embrace it. There is no sitting down and hoping with the garden... you must get up and go there.
- You DO, by planting and watering, cultivating and nurturing until it produces that which sustains you. "Garden" is an action word.
- By these things, you BECOME more than if you had you simply dreamed or wished for something to happen.
This culmination of vision and applied effort, this "becoming," is the highest purpose man can attain. In the garden, you generally work alone and it succeeds only because you make it succeed.
It is the golden paradox of the garden that it's basic, unfettered demands also make it a life-changing force. People often scorn the garden as oafish, something for rubes or the unsophisticated. But, nothing is farther from the truth.
What they cannot see is that by calling forth the powers of the Earth, we fulfill the core need of all humanity to GO, DO and BECOME.
In the garden, you meet the expectations of mankind to do something useful with yourself...
SO, if you are feeling like you are wasting your life and getting nowhere, or are unfocused - don't buy another self-help CD, or pay for more sessions with some "guru." Instead, shed those things, and go dig in the soil. Plant some seeds and nurture them to fruit.
By doing so, you will be refreshed in both body and spirit and will see things in a vastly different way. Your purpose will become clear and you will learn what the potato has known all along - greatness is, indeed, within you.
: 
row :mow :bouquet 
I tell them I hope they'll be happy when I plant them in a new spot. I ask them how they're doing as I stroke a leaf or stem - remember, it's an herb garden, so then I can sniff my fingers and enjoy the lingering fragrance! My sense of touch and taste is enhanced by having the garden! 
