The Rural Voice, 2002-03, Page 10"Our experience
assures lower cost
water wells"
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6 THE RURAL VOICE
Keith Roulston
Just along for the ride
h cuh
Roulston is
editor and
publisher of
The Rural
Voice. He
lives near
With, ON.
Elbert van Donkersgoed got me
thinking, as he often does, when I
read his recent column in the Christ-
ian Farmers Federation publication
Earthkeeping.
Van Donkersgoed recalled how
his parents had brought eight kids to
Ontario 50 years ago hoping for a
brighter future, and they found it.
What brighter future can Ontario farm
families dream of today, he wonder-
ed. The industrial model of farming
where people more and more become
slaves to their technology doesn't
seem to hold a real vision for the
future, he said, in discussing a series
of workshops the CFFO will hold to
try to identify a vision for the future.
It got me thinking that I'm not
sure many of us are wondering what
we're heading toward. We're just
hanging on and being carried along
on the waves of change that are
sweeping the world. It reminded me
of a story I read about a Nova Scotian
fishing boat caught in one of those
rare "perfect storms" where the crew
just held on for three days, hoping to
still be alive when the storm blew
itself out. Seems to me we're all
feeling a little like that right now.
But when the storm blows itself
out (and right now it feels like the
gales of change have been blowing
forever), will we be on course for a
brighter future or will we be lost?
The Van Donkersgoeds, and thous-
ands of other families from Holland
in the post-war era and from England,
Ireland and Scotland a century earlier,
set out with a dream and a destin-
ation. They were leaving a life they
didn't feel had a future for them and
setting goals they wanted to reach.
They were also doing what stress
counsellors advocate for those who
feel caught in a situation not of their
own making: taking action. I have to
keep reminding myself, when I some-
times feel beaten down by forces out-
side my control, that the way to keep
from being sucked down into depres-
sion is to keep moving. Do something,
anything, not to feel helpless.
Some people are happy surfing
the current wave of change. They're
happy to adapt to the new industrial -
style agriculture with larger and
larger units. They aren't particularly
thinking about the ramifications of
where the wave will take them.
Many others are worried about
what that change will mean. At a time
when political clout of farmers is
already reduced, what will it mean if
there are even fewer farmers? What
will it mean for our rural society if
schools and hospitals close because
there aren't enough people left to
keep them occupied? If the small
towns that have been the centre of
our communities don't have enough
business to remain viable?
Change is nothing new in the
countryside. Since the first tree was
felled in the thick woods that covered
southern Ontario, technology has
been constantly changing. Some
people always welcomed the new
tools, some always grumbled.
Rural communities also have a
long tradition, however, of seizing
control of change. From neighbours
getting together to build a school or
church to farmers forming co-oper-
atives to make butter, people found
ways to take control. That took
vision, however. You had to know
what you hoped to have before you
could work toward getting it.
What's different about this wave
of technological change is that we're
taking it passively. Rural com-
munities are not seizing control, not
developing a vision of what they
want their lives to be. We're reacting
as isolated individuals, worried only
tttat we have that satellite dish or new
pick-up, not seeing ourselves as part
of a community.
In the long run, we live as
individuals within a community. In
the long run we'll be happier and
healthier if we take action to seize
control of the future and aim toward a
vision of a future we want, not one
that's thrust upon us.0