The Rural Voice, 1979-06, Page 27Keith Roulston
Abetter way of llfe?
We were discussing the way people seem to be so concerned
about money these days that they crowd out everything else and
my friend said to me: "It's like a guy who starts chopping wood
because he needs the wood to heat his house, but somewhere
along the way he gets so carried away with chopping, that he just
keeps on going long after he's got all the wood he needs."
My friend might have made the illustration even move graphic
by saying the guy gets so carried away with chopping wood that
he starts tearing the wood off the side of his house and chopping
it up, becaue that it seems is what we are doing in North
America these days. "We're so busy being efficient and making
money that we're forgetting that our money was supposed to be
buying a better way of life. •
And quite frankly, in the last couple of decades, I don't think
we are buying a better way of life.
Here we are in North America with more disposable income
than ever before but many are living horrible lives to get it. The
pioneers who settled here went through incredible hardships to
open the land. They were quick to grab whatever luxuries they
could. Today the philosphy seems to have stuck. Open any
newspaper or magazine, turn on any television set and you'll be
astounded at the quantity of modern gadgets advertised to help
us make use of our leisure time and our spare cash. At least one
new expensive gadget comes on the market every year. A few
years ago it was dishwashers, then waterbeds, then microwave
ovens, saunas, hot tubs, television recorders, kitchen gadgets
that will do everything but cook the food and lord knows what
next.
We'readiing gadgets to our households so fast that we're
going to have to add to the households in order to hold all the
gadgets.
Yet while we're busy collecting the lastest gizmo that is
supposed to bring us happiness, we've been disre garding or
even destroying the very important things that make living good.
For years people beat it out of the countryside and into the cities
to get the luxuries of life. Today we have millions of people who
have big hou .ses or apartments filled with all the gadgets but
they are missing the simple things that brought people to this
country in the first place. They may have a $2,000 stereo set, but
they live in a crowded apartment stacked either over or under
someone else like hens in a cage layer house. They have little
privacy, less peace. If they want to breath fresh air, they have to
drive a couple of hours through massive traffic jams to find it;
Fresh water is something they've only heard about.
To get some nature back into their lives, many have turned to a
cottage by the lake or a country place. To get to that country
place theyhaveto survive long hours in traffic jams getting out of
the city, only to find that their quiet country retreat is stuffed
cheek by jowl among other people's quiet country retreats with
several hundred motor boats roaring by making it sound and
smell like the Indianapolis Speedway.
Ah, but those are those silly city people, I can hear all you
farmers saying. And yes, the city people are the silliest of the lot,
but in recent years farmers have been just about as silly. Those
people who suffered through plague -filled ocean crossings more
than a century ago only to struggle through the bush and have to
hack down millions of trees with few tools, those people came to
Canada wanting only simple pleasure, . They wanted the dignity
of owning their own land. They wanted an end to the worry of
being dependent on others, whether it be lord or absenteee'
landowner. They wanted a chance to lovethe land, not just work
it.
Today's farmer is so busy being a businessman that he doesn't
have a chance to love the land anymore. He rides over it as
quickly as possible in his air-conditioned, radio -equipped tractor
cab intent on being as efficient as he can so he can pay for the
damned air-conditioned, radio-equippped tractor. He doesn't
even know his land anymore, let alone love it. His father and his
grandfather knew every inch of the farm and cared about making
sure as much was given back as taken out. Today the land is
often not as important to the farmer as his new combine. ..
In the barnyard, where once his father or grandfather had a
kind of personal relationship with every animal, today's farmer
has so many animals that they become little more than figures on
his books, books that had better balance because the farmer
owes so much money for all his equipment and buildings and
land and livestock that he often lies awake nights wondering
what would happen if. ...
We have depersonalized farm life, just as we have
depersonalized urban life. Things matter now, not people, not
animals. I know "progressive" farmers will argue that that's the
way it should be, that farming if a business. I know others will
say that they'd hate to go back to the old days. I know that others
say that in today's world, that's the way farmers have to operate.
The facts are, they're probably right. Somehow though, I just
wonder if with our farmhouses filled with gadgets, we're better
off than our grandparents. I wonder if our materially well-off
farmers are happier than, say, the Amish. Maybe we've just
forgotten why we're chopping the wood.
THE RURAL VOICE/JUNE 1979 PG. 25