Second Chance

From the Heartland, Margot McMillen writes:

This morning, at 5:06 a.m., a text from Lisa, one of my agri-activist buddies. "Happy New Year!" it said. Funny thing about 5:06 a.m. I was awake also, but reading, not texting. Last night, Howard and I were supposed to play music at a New Year's square dance but the weather turned snowy, cold, icey, the predictions were for freezing rain, then ice and we imagined coming home at 1 a.m. on our gravel roads, on ice, and started calling friends to find folks in town that could play music. We need the moisture after the drought last summer, but we don't want to drive on it! Luckily, we have a good network of old timey musicians and Howard found a good few to stand in. Knowing we were missing the fun, I was bummed. Fixed a great steak dinner--last year's steer, better than anything we could get in town, baked potatoes, green beans, oranges delivered by a neighbor and purchased from the FFA. We turned on the TV...who were those people?? What kind of singing is that?? So, to bed at 9:00 p.m., which means awake at 5:00 a.m. But what a gorgeous morning to be alive! When the sun came up and I went out to feed, there was the moon still glowing in the southwest. Wouldn't have missed it for all the music in the world. And the critters are all fine, happy, got extra rations because of the cold. The picture is the resident donkeys enjoying a meal. Funny thing happened last week. An urban friend, born and raised in Baltimore or some damn place, came up and gave me a lengthy apology for not understanding what I've been trying to say for years. He said, "I thought when you talked about living in the country and raising food, you just meant it's important because some people want to do it. I didn't see what it meant for the future." And I said, "Well, that's been the challenge of my life. Trying to find words to explain why we all need farms, farmers, food raised in our community. The ordinary ways to say it...security, satisfaction, peace, love...don't mean anything next to the big word, "Profit." And he said, "Yeah. Profit. That's the big one." but, hey, we get second chances, don't we? And my blog for 2013 is my new opportunity to make you, dear reader, understand!