INTENT TO TILL Agriculture...farming, that is... has lost it's sense of purpose with young people, it seems.
Oh, the basic yearnings are still there to a degree, I suppose. A young lad sees things growing and feels an affinity with the Creator in a real, tangible way, and he would like for such feelings to remain, even to grow stronger. They are good feelings.
There is a bit of this yearning in most men, I'd say. It has something to do with survival and of being related to the Source.
We are all farmers at one time, watching things grow and feeling a responsability to keep them doing so and to help them grow bigger, better, more rapidly and then something else enters with the idea that such growth and maturity must be profitable.
At that point the art becomes a job. It now entails work and worry. This is the point at which many lose interest in farming and think of other ways to earn profits easier. The temptations toward being a butcher, a baker or a candlestick- maker become practical lures - whatever seems to need doing that has more certain promise of profits.
No, that is a not "selfishness" or "greed", nor is it to be condemned. It is a natural system of selection which should be encrouraged - not stopped. Farming today requires dedicated doers just as it always has. In true farming one is more closely associated with the basic "makings" of civilization. Other occupations, while essential in most cases, are one step removed from the creative process, in a sense, and are given more to frills and thrills along the way like icing on a cake that is already delicious and worthy within itself.
While farming is fundamental; other occupations seem to be add-ons, supplements, or "fixings."
Young folks no longer want to farm in the traditional sense. It has become something it never was before - something we call "big business". Any sensible youngster today, given a choice, is going to see farming as the organized
costly and somewhat risky business it has become. Other types of work appear to be - and are in most cases - more profitable.
This change has taken place, too, in my lifetime, too. (1916 to now..- and holding.) It is a whole, new world!
A.L.M. (at 3 a.m.) 5-23-2000
