A Harsh Reality of Modern Society
When we find ourselves alone, looking into a mirror, we are often able to see every single flaw we have. So much so that it drives a great many people to have anxiety, depression, and other mental disabilities. As sad as this is, it also can serve as a learning lesson for the collective. The lesson I speak of is not to run to a doctor and seek a prescription, either.
Imagine if a mirror could be held up to us as a people. This is not an exercise in self flagellation, but an opportunity to be honest with ourselves about our human condition. For the purpose of this specific discussion, let’s focus on us and our relationship with food. I’ll put on my former Army Non-Commissioned Officer hat here and just say what we all know to be true: we are collectively ignorant and weak. I know…damn that was harsh. I’ll take that hat off now and be more gentle.
Yea…Victory Gardens used to be a thing…
If you are a middle-aged individual, you may not realize it, our great-grandparents were intimately connected to their food. Depending on their economic status several decades ago, they had to grow their own food. At one time in American history, our government even promoted what were called “Victory Gardens” in an effort to drive home the idea of living and eating locally. Although this was in response to World Wars, how could such a great idea disappear? So much so that there is an accepted negative stigma that is attached to anyone that is a homesteader, gardener, or prepper.
In 2020 America, growing and processing your own food, and having the provisions to weather a crisis makes you a weirdo. Reread that sentence and let is sink in for a minute or two. In the words of the wise Joel Salatin, “That just ain’t normal.”
This used to be the norm…
Think about this.
You are somehow able to visit the home of your great-great-Grandmother. She tells you to go to the garden and pick some tomatoes, peppers, and squash for dinner. You (2020 American) look at her puzzled. She returns the look and also becomes angry because you are not doing what she told you to do.
This represents a disconnect that neither of the two people can understand.
The great-great-Grandma can’t imagine not having a garden or a world where she would be so dependent on something like a grocery store for everything, especially something that could be grown on her own property.
You (2020 American) have no clue what a real garden looks like, what a ripe tomato, pepper or squash feels like, nor do you even know how to identify the plant from afar. If you were born, raised, and reside in the city you may think that food just comes from the grocery store.
“Unf*&K Yourself!!!”
- Lamare talking to his soldiers when he was in the U.S. Army
In civilian vernacular this means ‘correct your deficiencies.’
Brace yourself, I’m putting my hat back on.
Great-great-Grandma is smart about how to live, wise, experienced, and tough. She had to be. Her world was hard and unforgiving. She understood that failure to maintain a garden for some amount of sustenance meant that she may go hungry.
This…is the main concern of the modern generation. And food comes from the store, just so you know!
2020 American, especially those deemed Millennials and younger, are largely ignorant about real life, lack real world experience, and are physically and mentally weak. Let’s face it, the vast majority of us would not make it in her world. All the of work she did to survive we would call, “too hard”…”unfair”…”too much”…you get the point.
As the mirror puts our collective weakness on display, the excuses creep in. “I don’t have time,” “I don’t have space for a garden,” “I don’t have the money,” “My back hurts,” “I don’t have a green thumb.” The ghost of your great-great-Grandmother weeps in disappointment. If she used those excuses in her day, she may have starved. The reality is that 2020 Americans want things the easy way, with as little physical or mental effort required. We scoff at the idea of dirty hands, hard and hot days, early mornings, sore muscles, and not being Instagram photo ready.
We have it so good, we have jokes about experiencing ‘first world problems.’ “My air conditioning isn’t cold enough”, “My refrigerator is too cold”, “The valet took too long pulling my car around”, “It took too long for my shower to warm up.” These are less funny if you have every been to a third world country like Iraq or Afghanistan. I keep these things in mind as I remember my father telling me about having to eat dandelions and grass growing up. Not because they taste that great, but because sometimes there were no other options.
We need to get a damn grip!
Hat off.
“Adversity makes men (and women), and prosperity makes monsters.”
- Victor Hugo
The great news is that we are not slaves to our current condition. The reflection in the mirror is not fixed nor is it permanent. We don’t need make-up either! We just have to change our perspective…we have to be better.
We have to return to the understanding that diamonds are made from pressure, and that heat, process, and pounding make steel. We have to remember that its no that we are tall, its that we are standing on the shoulders of giants [our grand parents and great grand parents]. The greatness of our ancestors is in our DNA…we should strive to live up to it.
Growing up, my father used to tell my brothers and I, “I hope you boys never have to live a hard life, but I know an easy one will make you soft.” As a parent, that has to be one hell of a dilemma. I know that he wasn’t wishing the hardships of Jim Crow on my brothers and I…or the financial hardship his family faced in the wake of the great depression. But I understand that he was hoping that we would face our generations own heat, process, and pounding to make us a kind of steel that could meet the challenges of life without breaking.
Are you the product of adversity or of prosperity?
