Growing a Farmer (2)

I am not a huge fan of farm animals, so some of these next few chapters were not very pleasant to read. I have this huge fear of birds, so the chicken chapter was especially difficult. I am one of those people who would prefer not to know where my meats and eggs come from because once I know, I feel too grossed out to eat them anymore. However, I will say that I’m impressed by how much work Kurt put in to keeping his livestock. He woke up so early, bought all this expensive equipment, cared for the young livestock appropriately, and even took measures to protect these animals against the wild ones that lived on the island. Granted, Kurt wasn’t doing all this because of his deep love for animals, but I still admire all the work he did. He came onto the farm scene with no experience, no connections, and no idea about how to run a farm. For him to finally succeed in the manner that he did is truly a feat.

In Kurt’s concluding chapter, he talks about how he sees himself living out the rest of his life on this land, how he feels a certain responsibility towards it. Part of me doesn’t understand his sentiment because it seems like the land takes a lot of work to keep up. But the other part of me sees his attachment because that land is where Kurt experienced his greatest failures and greatest successes. It’s almost as if the land was there with him through it all. I’ve moved around for a lot of my life, so I’ve learned not to grow attached to places, but that doesn’t mean I don’t think fondly of the places I’ve lived. I think it’s human to feel nostalgia, so Kurt to me represents perhaps a more extreme version of the average human being: someone who 1) doesn’t have all the answers, 2) fails some and succeeds some, and 3) enjoys this journey we’re all on called life.