Feature Article November 20, 2002
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Musing Over PotatoesAbeautiful fall season after a scorching dry summer and it was time to dig up the garden. Mine is not a big garden, nestling among the rocks of the Canadian Shield, but it does supply us with a few months of fresh vegetables. I was disappointed in the size of the potatoes; I had been lazy and neglectful by not watering the plants when they needed care and there will be a shortage this winter. There is a great deal of personal satisfaction supplying food for the table. In the hearts of most men there lingers the primitive need to provide directly for the family. It is an ingrained instinct that is difficult to ignore, nor should it be ignored. It is basic fodder for family satisfaction, as basic as begetting and raising children to carry on a society.
During a short respite from labouring I lean on the fork and muse: a warm quiet sunny afternoon and Mother Nature's surrounding bounty encourages reflection on our fortuitous position in this New World. I muse that we are 'lucky' to be born where we have to exert ourselves to provide food and shelter for the coming winter months, as it isn't easy to exist in freezing winter temperatures without adequate preparation during the lazy, hazy months of summer. I wonder if this need to prepare for a non-growing season sets us apart from those peoples of the world where climate encourages only day-by-day search for nourishment and shelter. I certainly would have the tendency to stop the search if my belly was full and shelter found well before the end of the day. It is the need to provide for the future that drives me. One of the many theories trying to explain the evolution of various societies is that a harsher climate forces populations to consider satisfying physical needs prior to enjoying the luxuries of the arts and warfare. In my opinion this instinct remains even in our modern age of importing food, heat and shelter. It is difficult to change ingrained habits in just a few generations.We are still seasonally occupied by planting, tending and harvesting or exchanging talents and labour with others for these basic chores. There is no time for mischief or indolence when winter demands stored food
Our Prime Minister has suggested that terrorism originates in the poorer nations of the world because we in the west live in opulence. He has a point, but most terrorism is springing from the oil rich areas of the world and disputed geographical/political hot spots not from the tropical jungles. Many countries are still in the infancy of fair wealth distribution and political harmonizing among the populace. Wouldn't it be nice if we of the rich western world were concerned about these less fortunate countries just because they are an emerging population that need help and not because we covet their resources. No time for additional musing, nor is there time to pick up a protest sign or gun to express my dissatisfactions, as is being done in far too any regions of the world. The vegetables must be gathered or we will be hungry this winter. We are indeed fortunate that we have to labour, or at least think we do, for our very existence; it precludes many other problems.
