Here in western Minnesota, we are at that time when digging in the earth is going to need to stop for several months simply because the earth will be too hard. There are a host of other things set to happen, all of which signal the end of the something, and also the beginning of something else. There is no other season like it on the farm in terms of the imperative of getting some things done and the reality of needing the accept the human limits we all live with.
Many of the things I have thought would be done by now are not and will not be. I will live in next year country in some important ways. But it is critical to remember that this is illusion, that our crackerjack communication system regularly confronts us with impossibility, from the celebrity who can change his/her circumstance in life with what seems a mere wave of the hand, to cyberspace superhumans who can accomplish wonders by just thinking about them.
Those of us willingly(and sometimes not so willingly) stuck in reality know that there are things to be seen to, and that if we ourselves do not take it up it is we who will suffer the lack. Are the potatoes dug up and stored? Is the house ready for winter? Are the winter livestock quarters usable? Will the water freeze? Is the soil properly covered and protected for the winter?
In reality though, it is all of us who suffer the lack of quality living, as our common life deteriorates and our government falls apart. Our wise ones have tried to tell us these things for generations.
In the Great Digest Confucius says, in a fragment of a longer thought: ". . .wanting good government in their states, they first established order in their own families, wanting order in the home they first disciplined themselves. . ."
As the chaos grows around us we need to continue to pay strict attention to getting the critical things done that we can do. The order we so badly need in our government today grows from the order we focus on establishing in our own lives, beginning with ourselves. Work carefully! Be well. Enjoy your Thanksgiving!
