Finding a purpose
Posted At: Tuesday, December 9, 2008 10:24 PM | Posted By: Jon Katz
December 9, 2008 – Warming, dry. Of all the messages I get, some of the most touching are from people who live on farms all over the world, and share this uncommon but very individualistic experience. I got a beautiful message yesterday from Brenda, who lives on a farm in Washington state, and wrote me that she is struck by how so often she feels the same way I do about the experience of being on a farm. I am always trying to find a purpose for her farm, she writes. “I can only believe that having some land can only be a good thing” even in a troubled economy.
She sensed fatigue in my writing. Winter is hard on a farm, she wrote, and she signed her note, “A Fellow Whistler In The Dark.”
People who live on farms know the special feelings the evoke, the dramas of life with animals, the brutality of chores, the cost, the special challenges of winter. It is easier to get tired in the head than in the body. Like Brenda, I am always seeking a purpose for my farm, even as I know that I am always seeking a purpose for my life. The two are not really separable.
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Rose is doing better, still not eating properly. Snow all melted tonight, as it warmed up. Going to the dentist in the morning.
Re-thinking the farm. Goats, moving west
Posted At: Tuesday, December 9, 2008 4:09 PM | Posted By: Jon Katz
December 9, 2008 – Looks like the goats are moving west, to central New York state. A large animal vet who does animal therapy work with children and the chronically ill is interested in taking them and training them, and I love that idea. I think the notion of sending animals out into the world to better places works for me, in some cases. I’ve done it with dogs and other animals, but could not do it with Izzy, Lenore or Rose, of course.
I am fond of the goats, and I like the notion of them as a jeering gallery, but I do not love goats, and do not really spend as much time with them as they deserve. They are bright, curious and loud, and cause lots of mischief and disruption. The vet loves them, and laughs about how smart and odd they are, and she will be with them all day and haul them all over the place to do therapy work.
So in the next week or say Ruth, Honey and Murray are heading out, another step in the rethinking of the place, some of which I have shared with you on this blog. I’ve gotten a lot of responses and opinions, and all are valuable and interesting. I am clear on returning the farm to its quieter, more elemental roots, but there will still be plenty of animals here, and plenty of animal stories and photos. I am not abandoning the farm in any way, but learning to love it yet again, giving rebirth to its promise, and to mine.
I am not casual about decisions like this, although it may appear so. But I am not turn up about it, either. A farm is a living, organic entity, not a theme park. It needs and demands change.
A friend suggested to me recently that there was less joy in me lately, but I don’t really think that is true. I just think I don’t need to wave it around as much.
Good things in life, cont. Snowy day on a farm
Posted At: Tuesday, December 9, 2008 9:53 AM | Posted By: Jon Katz
December 9, 2008 – Snowy days on a farm are a pain, but great. I found a potentially wonderfully home for the goats, with a large animal vet in New York State who does therapy work with children and has worked and lived with goats much of her life. We talked this morning, and it sounded perfect. We’ll both be thinking about it.
My radio show “Dog Talk,” interrupted by all of the numbing political and economic news out of Washington and New York, resumes next week, on the 16th at 2 p.m. on WAMC with Joe Donahue. I think it will be healthy for everyone when people are talking and thinking about something other than money.
I look forward to seeing Joe again and gassing about our mutual love of dogs.
I am getting the most wonderful e-mail from farmers all over the world, and we are sharing the joys and frustrations of owning and managing farms. I’ll write about it more tonight. I am absolutely returning to life. This process works for me. Went out in the snow with dogs for an hour this morning.
