Sometimes, I feel sorry for people whose occupations are so image oriented. Politicians, executives, celebrities... they are forced to focus on the minutia of life. Who-said-what? How does this make me look to this other image-obsessed person whom I must report to in order to make myself seem bigger/more important? OH! We can't use THAT word because it might give off THIS message when the message really needs to be THIS! Not because that is what is accurate, but because that is what puts the best possible light on This Thing that everyone already knows is a spade; but we need to make it look like a diamond.
Really?
Reality?
Real?
Get real!
Field work is going on outside my door. People who, as fast as their eyes pop open and they plant their feet in their shoes, are out the door and on a tractor. They are tilling and planting; painting the earth with a base coat of seeds that will mingle with the brown soil and the clear rain and the warm sun and give rise to the most saturated green leaves and soft golden tassels, rich purple and sweetly scented, bright white blossoms! They work in the dust and the warmth of a sunny afternoon, long into the damp and cooling evenings. Long past the point of tired. Long past the concern of being dirty, sweaty and sore from riding across bumpy fields for endless hours. Way beyond their own image, with only the goal of getting it done in their determined minds.
It's got nothing to do with image or what career move is now possible because this-or-that was said or not said.
And here I stand, the color commentator. Smack in the middle of it all. Appreciative, amused, accepting, and a little annoyed. Let me splash a little color around, if I may.
Every image oriented person on this earth should have the PRIVILEGE of working in a 'field capacity' for a week or a month of their lives, at least every year. When they got done, how worried would they be about this word or that sound bite? What would they find more rewarding? How important would the ladder be, after spending some time at ground level? Would greasing the wheels seem as important to them as greasing an axle? Maybe more, maybe less...
There is a difference between living and surviving. Highly paid professionals LIVE a more affluent lifestyle as a general rule than those who earn their keep in a more basic nature... but their SURVIVAL is more dependent on the opinion and influence of the people around them, their survival is harder to predict, because opinions and intentions change from moment-to-moment.
Those who exist in a more elemental world SURVIVE (and allow others to survive) because of what they do with their hands, bodies and brains. They live with less material opulence; but they LIVE with the satisfaction of putting a tired body to bed at the end of the day and a mind that knows the job has been done and done well. The result of that day does not depend on someone else's opinion. Their annual evaluation will happen as brown fields turn green, get tall and yield crops as a result of their efforts.
That kind of quantification I understand.
That's real to me.
I'm off to play with a little white paint... but when I am done with that, I am going to milk cows.
I hope you can enjoy your day as much as I am going to enjoy mine!
Keeping it real.
Your's Most Truly,
The Barn Diva.
