Balance is vital

Blog #44

Destruction then building, striving for balance

So …, I’ve had multiple opportunities to shear across Georgia and have sheared for military veterans, and I also know veteran farm owners that don’t have sheep.  There are some famous veterans, too, who worked in agriculture after their time in the military, notably Dwight D. Eisenhower and Richard Winters.  Farmers and livestock producers  share common traits, and while those may seem counter to military service, and especially combat arms, they aren’t.

General Eisenhower, Supreme Commander, Allied Forces Europe, and later United States President, spent some of his retired years on a farm near the Gettysburg battlefield, and Major Richard Winters, whose deeds were chronicled in  Stephen Ambrose’s book Band of Brothers, built an agricultural supply business in Pennsylvania after his time in uniform.  I’ve shorn for retired Army and Marine infantrymen, Air Force flyers and maintainers, plus sailors.  Another of my friends doesn’t have sheep, but his farm includes horse rescue and rehabilitation efforts.  All the folks mentioned in this paragraph are familiar with the human cost of war.  That may well be why they wanted to spend time later in agriculture.

With our nation’s servicemembers experiencing combat operations very consistently over the past 35 years, many veterans have seen, heard, and experienced some of the worst of man’s inhumanity to man.  This takes a toll no matter how much preparation, training, counseling, reflection, and time is involved.  Everyone with military service has been part of something that at a base level is designed to destroy, not build.  For many people, their time after service is a reflection of this, seeking to counter what they experienced.  Many veterans seek to build, seek to rejuvenate, seek to return positive work to the planet.

Agriculture provides that opportunity in so many ways.  Crop operations have a season of rebirth and rejuvenation every year.  Livestock operations can experience this cycle in varying time periods, ranging from months to years at a time.  Poultry is a few months from egg to productivity, while cattle take considerably longer, but all produce life and these are lives that can continue to give back to the world. Leafy vegetables give back when they are fresh from the ground, while root vegetables can last well into winter, sustaining life through bleaker periods, and spring brings the cycle around again.  Cattle, goats, and sheep can provide clothing and nutrition.  Whether leather, mohair, or wool, animals can provide materials to protect us from the environment.  Those same living animals can provide on-going nutrition through milk and cheese.  Plants as well can provide protection from the elements, the obvious sources being cotton and flax.  Trees as well can produce fabric, too, namely rayon.

When agriculture works symbiotically, the results can be felt across the board, while still allowing us to tread more lightly upon the earth.  Old orchards can be rehabilitated with hogs doing the initial heavy lifting of literally rooting out undesirable plants.  Sheep and goats can follow, clearing out anything remaining from the hogs, and then follow with poultry to spread the effluence while scratching for worms.  This same action can clear a garden or work as a slow, steady approach to land clearing, including urban renewal, while minimizing chemical and machine-introduced pollution.  These actions in turn provide aeration and nutrients for the soil to be absorbed by crop-bearing plants.

One additional point—this is hard work!  Whether building fences, feeding, seeding, or watering, this is hard, exhausting labor.  In Georgia during summer, you’ll see farmers watering before dawn to avoid excessive evaporation, and during the day livestock producers sweat out gallons of their own to ensure their animals have access to safe shade and sufficient clean water.  But for wellness, this is labor that produces rather than destroys.  At the end of a combat engagement there may be pain, sadness, triumph, guilt, and/or anger, while at the end of a farm day there are pains, aches, disappointments, accomplishment, and goals to reach for the next day.  I will always hold that military operations are a fact of the world we live in, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t without cost.  Farming is also necessary for life in our world, and I’m thankful for so many who turn toward a plowshare after having served their nation with a sword.

There are some very definite traits of those involved in agriculture, and they aren’t necessarily at odds with military service.  While farmers and military members hope for life and success, they both understand that death cannot be avoided.  Both welcome those who work with them to pursue common goals.  Both understand the need for varying viewpoints, experiences, and skills, and both understand that there is a delay between what is sought and what will be the final outcome.  Both also understand that one individual can’t do it alone but requires the strength and skills of others to succeed.

Many vocations and avocations are therapeutic for those who have served, but agriculture is a very direct approach to life, growth, rebirth, and rejuvenation.  In many ways it is almost diametrically out from military action.  Rather than a great deal of critical timing, technology, and logistics, agriculture also requires patience, faith, and the realities of messy biological actions.  While those in agriculture minimize risk, they are also still subject to the realities of weather, climate, chance, predation, and genetics.  Also, a cup of coffee at dawn on the porch planning the day is much more therapeutic than a cup of coffee gulped down under fluorescent lights between briefings after a night of too little sleep. 

Thank you to our service members who give of their lives and thank you to our veterans who now strengthen life through farming. 

 

C-Ya!

*** No animals were harmed in the making of this post. Shearing is an important part of sheep farming for the wellbeing of the sheep. ***