Across theFence #553
I like to think back to the way it was when people were still visiting across the fence and their neighbors were like family. If someone became ill or got hurt and couldn’t do their chores or harvest their crops, neighbors quickly pitched in and helped harvest the crops for them.
Howard and Pete Erikson visit across the fence.
You often hear people say that when you live in a small town, everybody knows your business. They know what you’re doing and if they don’t know what you’re doing, they make something up. That’s OK too. As long as you’re not doing something illegal, or causing harm to people, why should we care what people are saying about us. Who knows, maybe they’re saying positive things.
When I was young most of us cousins lived close together. Everybody was like one big extended family. Now we’re scattered to the four winds of the country. It’s a global world and sometimes in the global world the small contact between people gets lost as we all get caught up in our lives. Nobody knows what we’re doing or what’s going on in our lives. We tend to drift apart. Those close family ties get harder to maintain.
This new adventure I find myself on has given me a chance to sit back and re-evaluate a lot of things. One thing I’ve learned these past couple weeks is that the spirit of helping and support from family, friends, and neighbors is still very much alive and well in small town, rural America. I’m proud to be a small part of that culture. It’s something we should all wear with great pride. I’ve always been proud of being a country boy, a farm boy at heart.
We hear and see so much on the news about the cruelty and intolerance of people to each other. It’s all about me and what I want. There’s a divisive, non-cooperative attitude that seems to have invaded politics and has spread like a cancer into society. People need to visit rural America. I have seen a positive side in people that gives me much hope again.
I once heard a saying by the Dali Lama that pretty much sums up how I feel about things; “The purpose of life is to help people, if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them.” I’ve tried to make that a goal in my life since the first time I heard it. That would make a pretty good epitaph on anyone’s tombstone too.
We need to become better, more caring, supportive, and tolerant neighbors. Not just across the fence, but to people around the world. I was lucky when I was in the army, because they decided I would be a medic. That put me in a position where I was able to help people, instead of just hurt them. I think I’m still in medic mode a lot of the time. I may not be able to help them medically anymore, but I can be there to listen and offer support when needed. I’m still Doc and always will be to my Vietnam Brothers. I can’t tell you how supportive they’ve been since they found out about my health problems. We need to look for the positives in every situation–even a very negative experience like Vietnam. In a way it was a blessing. I would never have made those close friendships that are just as strong today as they were almost 50 years go.
I received a phone call from a friend of our son, Erik, who battled cancer for many years. He’s now cancer free. He said he’s come to view his cancer as a blessing because it changed his life and what is now important to him. I’m starting to look at this cancer in the same way. Instead of it being a curse, I hope to emerge as a better person who looks at the world in a very positive light. We can’t let negative people and their thinking bring us down.
I feel that living here in small town, rural America where neighbors still care and we can visit across the fence with each other, gives me an advantage. Life is good and I don’t want to waste a moment. There is so much to do and experience in all the small moments in life, that really add up to the moments that mean something, the ones that touch our soul and lift our spirit; the beauty of a sunset, rain gently falling on the leaves, the wind blowing through the trees, watching rabbits in our yard chasing each other–after all it is spring, watching a newborn fawn totter along behind it’s mother on wobbly legs, appreciating the beauty of wild flowers along the roads and lanes, hearing the frog chorus down by the pond, watching as darkness begins to envelop the land and solitude arrives. There is a peacefulness that comes over me as the stars come out and I gaze around and observe the majesty and mystery of it all. It’s all those small details in our lives that we need to appreciate. Those of us who live in rural America have the advantage because nature is a big part of who we are.
*
No comments:
Post a Comment