I was listening to the podcast No Stupid Questions with Stephen Dubner (Freakonomics) and Angela Duckworth (Grit)—Episode 20 to be exact—when Voltaire’s quote from Candide was thrown down.
“We must take care of our garden.”
They offered their thoughts about man’s (taken in the non-gender way) search for meaning. It brought up a lot of thoughts and ideas and reminded me that I hadn’t given you an update on my pandemic garden.
Here’s the 2020 score card:
Tomatoes: Fail. A bunch of flowers—but no fruit.
Chard: Success. Growing with abundance and almost ready for harvest.
String beans: Not good. A few beans, maybe more on the way.
Cucumbers: Not bad. Decent harvest, more on the vine.
Cabbages: Fail. Eaten by bugs.
Beets, carrots and radishes: Root vegetables= A complete mystery.
Next year, I will make some changes:
I will plant earlier and plant seedlings rather than seeds.
I will not plant cabbage, but I will try tomatoes again.
I will prune back some trees to let in more sun.
I will be better at weeding and feeding.
It’s called learning and I am good with it. Which brings me back to the podcast and the discussion about life’s meaning. Their conclusion (which I fully endorse) is that our time on earth is most joyful, meaningful and important if we are contributing to the betterment of others. YES!
It is after all about learning, growing, trying, failing and continuing to grow your garden to be plentiful, rich and important.
