Profoundly Disconnected? Not in this house!

The Boy is at the National Boy Scout Jamboree right now, I just watched Mike Rowe's speech from Saturday.  He told the boys the worst advice in the world he got was from a guidance counselor who told him to "work smart, not hard".  How many times have we heard that?

I was one who went to college (and grad school) and found that you have to work smart AND hard just to earn those degrees.  I went from being valedictorian to losing my college scholarship during my freshman year because I didn't know how to study.  I'd always gotten by with just doing the homework and aced the tests.  I'd never had a teacher who tested on something they hadn't assigned homework on!

Anyway, Mike pointed out that at age 40, after becoming a fairly successful actor, he found out how disconnected he'd become from what he initially wanted to do with his life (see the video for the life-changing moment at age 12).  Not that he was really cut out for the trades he had struggled to learn as a teenager, any more than I was cut out to be a truck driver like my dad.

But Mike says that so many of us are so profoundly disconnected from the "dirt" that many of us don't really understand where our food, or our energy, is coming from.  Most people have no idea what "sustainability" even means (which is why I like to call our produce "naturally grown" rather than "sustainably grown").

Mike was trying to tell the Scouts that THEY are connected, they are learning the skills now that they will need for a "good job" (and he redefines for many of us what a "good job" really is).  I'm trying to keep this somewhat related to farming, so I won't go into details, but minutes 18-20 of his half hour speech really hit me.  If you've got time, I recommend watching the entire video, but if not, watch at least from 18:00 to the end.  It's a real eye-opener.

http://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2013/07/21/video-eagle-scout-mike-rowe-tells-scouts-to-work-smart-a...

I was the first in my family to go to college (though my mom started a year after I did - she, my younger brother and I all graduated at the same time since I took 5 yrs to work my way through engineering school after I lost that scholarship).  While I managed to pay off my student loans, and had a "good job" as an engineer for over 20 years, I've got to say that being a farmer is just as fulfilling (if not more), just as frustrating (though my main obstacles are the weather and the pests, not so much bureaucracy now though there is a bit that I try to avoid), and I think just as important (providing food security instead of national security) as what I used to do.

The Boy has already earned his welding merit badge, and while Mike says skilled welders earn a lot of money, his interests lie elsewhere and he'll probably follow in my footsteps to begin with and go to engineering school.  I hope he finds an engineering career to be fulfilling, if not, he can find a job as a welder, or a mechanic, an electrician, a plumber, even take over the farm.  I'll be proud of him no matter what he decides to do with his life, as long as he "works smart AND hard" (and pays off his student loans!).

Me, I'm still learning the "smart" part of organic (or sustainable) farming.  Like those cute little baby spiders on my zucchini plants are NOT spiders, they're the first stage (or instar) of the squash bugs from the eggs that I missed on the leaves...