Farming to Save the Family Part the First
The family
is in bad shape in our society. I don’t
need to make a list of the problems. We
all know them. There are a lot of
programs and proposed remedies out there.
Here’s
mine: farm.
I mean it.
Is an explanation
needed?
Ok, first,
a family can grow to a normal size on the farm.
I know “normal” family size now only has room for one or two
children. But let’s be honest. What would nature say is a normal size? Well, if you get married at 25, that leaves
you about two decades of fertility. Say
you have a baby every two years. That
amounts to about ten kiddos running around.
In a time
gone by, a big family was “normal.” I
had three Amish families for neighbors, all of which had 13 children.
“13
children!” you exclaim, “do you know how much it would cost to raise 13
kids?!”
What’s the
figure now? A million dollars per child
from birth to flying the nest?
Well, that
might be the suburban figure, but things are a bit more affordable on the
land. In the city or suburb, a child is generally
regarded as a major financial drain.
But on the
land, the child can be major economic asset.
They should never be looked at or treated as free labor, but it can’t be
denied that they can actually help provide for themselves by their chores on
the farm. When you grow your own food,
your little ones can help weed the garden or gather the eggs.
Furthermore,
the work that needs done on the farm keeps you at home and weeds out most of
those expensive extracurricular activities.
Swim-team? Nope, we’ve got to
milk the goats. Summer travelling team? Sorry, it’s haymaking time.
This allows
for greater freedom in receiving children as gifts. When we stopped producing what we need for
ourselves, we started putting price tags on everything. If you don’t raise your own food, you’ve got
to buy it – for you and your kids.
Seems to me
we went ahead and put a price tag on our children, too. Anymore, a child isn’t a gift to rejoice
over. A child is a purchase to be
contemplated. If you’re one of those
oddballs who wants one, you make the investment. If not, you turn off that fertility you were
given by God. A child is a choice in
this frame of mind, not a gift.
Did I just
put the blame for the culture of death on our economic arrangement?
I think I
just did… I’m just saying…
Yeah, yeah,
I know, I’m a horrible person. Not only
do I think that the industrial revolution has a lot to do with the culture of
death, but I also think that a normal family is huge! And what’s worse, I think children should
have to work!
Forgive my
archaic and tyrannical opinions, but I think it is a good thing for kids
to work. Case in point: I remember with
great fondness planting peas with my mom in the garden when I was very
young. I also remember with great regret
the whole summers I spent playing video games and avoiding the one or two
chores I did have around the house. Hmm…
Seems to me
we expect children to be raised without an ounce of responsibility on their
shoulders and then we get frustrated that teenagers and young adults are so
lazy.
A + B = …
On the
farm, children have chores, and that’s good for them. They plant and tend a garden and in the
process they learn the virtue of persistence.
Quit weeding for a couple of weeks and tell me how things are
growing. They raise a flock of chickens
that need fed and watered every day. In
the process they gain responsibility.
Work on the
farm teaches children all kinds of things about life that they aren’t going to
learn behind a desk or in front of the television. This is good for them and it bolsters society
as a whole by raising responsible citizens who are concerned with the common
good.
But not
only do children grow in virtue on the farm.
That’s just the beginning. They
grow in grace, strength, skill, and wisdom.
Grace
flourishes in children on a farm as they are constantly surrounded with the
beauty of creation and the mysteries of life.
The earth is just too beautiful not to lift the mind to God. On a farm, a child feels small in a good
way. Creation is so big and its Creator
must be even bigger. And that Creator
takes the time to make even the smallest things beautiful in their own
way. If He cared so much for the wildflowers,
He must have taken great care in making the child. He waters the fields and warms them with the
sun and He provides all that the child needs.
Strength
grows by actually using the muscles God gave us. As a kid, I exercised my thumbs quite a bit…
face it: most video games just aren’t a full-body work out. Farm work will develop those muscles and help
our children grow into strong adults.
Children
gain skill by working. On the farm,
there are lots of skills to gain and lots of crafts to master. I mastered Pokemon, and as proud as I am of
catching them all, it would have been nice to master something – um, I don’t
know – meaningful. Do you know
how much better my gardens would be if I had been working in them all that
time? Do you know how much better my
pottery would be if I’d been learning it way back then? That’s all I’m saying.
They grow
in wisdom by listening and observing.
I’m starting to think that the small farm is only hope of retaining any
culture of wisdom in our society.
Everything else changes so fast there’s no time to gain wisdom. There are only new apps and updates to try to
keep up with. But on the farm, there is
tradition. Plants and animals need just
what they’ve always needed since God made them way back when. Wisdom is only gained over time and is only
desirable where tradition is valued.
Over time we have learned what makes a garden flourish. We know how to enrich it, how to work it, how
to weed it, how to water it, because people have been doing it for thousands of
years. On the farm, tradition matters. Without tradition there is no wisdom.
If you want
children who are really good with your gadgets, but who don’t even know where
their food comes from. If you want kids
with bloodshot eyes all the time from staring at a computer screen. If you want weak children who will graduate
high school without anything but a lackluster, disjointed textbook
education. If you want our culture to
keep on sliding toward the edge of the cliff.
Then by all means, keep doing what we’ve all been doing all this time.
But if we
want anything to change, we need to do something about it. We can’t keep plucking the leaves and leaving
the root to develop. We need to get to
the root of the problem and rip it out.
Something
radical must be done.
My
suggestion?
“Farm.”
In His Heart,
Wes
