Returning to the Country

[The Helpful Gardener]

My conviction was that crops grow themselves and should not have to be grown.

I think this is what many folks think of when they hear us talk about OSR, that we have abandoned work in our gardens for a life of leisurely sloth.

This is abandonment, not natural farming

(this hits a little close to home after a week of business travel and a late peek at the garden; much to do tomorrow... ).

The experiment fails. Lesser men acknowledge defeat; F-san goes back to the drawing board; learn more, more science. I think the war must have figured strongly here despite only the brief mention in the end.

Thoughts?

HG

[Dixana]

To this point I am just in a state of awe. I can't put into words the feeling I got reading "everything is meaningless and of no value, that everything returns to nothingness"
There have been points in my life where I have just stopped and thought, why? What is the purpose of the big house I desire, what vehicle I drive, the things I have? After I am gone will they have mattered at all? We have complicated the world so much more than necessary with our delusions of grandeuor, fancy hotels, huge mansions, gas sucking SUVs and everyone works harder harder to have more than the last generation.
But do we need it? Wasn't the world a better place when we lived in true communities, grew our own food, and worked as a unit istead of every man for himself?
I read those words and it brought me right back to that place where I feel like I don't belong here and should have been born hundreds of years ago.

[The Helpful Gardener]

I think we all go there from time to time, Dix. The problem lies in a society that does not share those values to any great degree beyond the occasional nod to how important family is, but we work lives to keep our families in all the expectations society has placed on us and our children (cars, houses, X-boxes, the right sneakers) that do not allow us to spend time with our families. And when we do it si now usually through the buffer of electronic devices or some other media (he typed ).

Don't forget Larry's earlier statement to me about overstatement as teaching aide in Japanese traditions; I know F-san means it about the move back to the land, but "everything is meaningless" has kind of a harsh ring, don'tcha think? I mean, shades of Nietschze...

HG

[Dixana]

It does in fact sound harsh, but all the same it is true. Back in 03 our apartment building burned down. We lost every single thing we owned; clothes, electronics, pictures, nicnacs, everything. Guess what? There is only one thing out of that entire apartment I miss, or even think about. It was a solid brass horse that had been in my family four generations. Nothing else REALLY mattered.
We place too much importance on posessions and I think sensei saw that, among other things.

[rainbowgardener]

Yes, if you read it as every THING is meaningless, it is easier to connect with. Things/ objects / especially all the built world and all the "treasures" and wealth we try to store up are meaningless and as he said without intrinsic worth.

[muland]

Perhaps one could see it as everything in this world is meaningless. By that I mean the world of our present culture that developed along with agriculture beginning about 12,000 or 14,000 years ago. Once we started farming we created a surplus which had to be stored and guarded. This led to stratification of society, haves and have nots, standing armies, war, slavery and the rest. It is also when people got the idea that we were special, that the world was created for people's use alone and that the laws of ecology somehow did not apply to us. Constant expansion..."progress"...became the hallmark worldwide. This, I think, is the world that feels alien. And it should.

I tend to identify more with the way of life people had before the advent of agriculture. People apparently got along just fine for about three million years...at least we survived which says we were doing sometning right. We lived in tribes where everyone had the cradle to grave security we long for today. We lived within nature, got along with our fellow creatures, gathered and hunted our food in a similar way to what Fukuoka-san proposes. If there was a religion it was animism which was really about appreciation for nature and for creation. I think that when we feel relaxed and at peace as you discribed, Dix, it is because we still remember deep down the way we lived for 99.8% of our time on earth.

I felt the same way when I read Fukuoka for the first time. It stirred my subconscious. As if I already knew, but had never been able to put it all together or into words. I have heard that from many, many readers over the years.

[Dixana]

I got a very similar sensation when I read the "Earths Children" series. A sense that I belonged there in that time and not here.
It is a profound feeling when you look around you and suddenly realize it seems wrong. Your very way of existance is wrong.
I wonder if every single person read TOSR, would they all get a similar sense, or would it pass by completely unregistered by some?