Working in the DMZ

People often judge a garden’s success by the production of a garden, be it vegetables, flowers, herbs or shrubs. This is one standard of judging a garden, but another one is to be found in working the garden, especially in a home garden. Working a small home garden is not hard but needs consistent care and exposes one to the workings of nature. We work and nature works. When these two forces are aligned the garden grows. Some would say that working a home garden is not real work since it is more enjoyable than work we might do for a job. This is true in the sense many work hard to live and survive, not always enjoying the work they do. However, make no mistake about it, working the garden is real work, even though we enjoy it. I guess in home gardening if we did not we would not do it. There is no such option in working for a living. But work is work be it hard, easy, boring or enjoyable. When we talk, as politicians often do these days, about the ‘working class’ we often do not include, cooking meals, doing the laundry or home gardening. The ‘working class’ often sounds like a sad group making the best of work. But as Dorothy Day, of the Catholic Worker reminds us when talking about St. Therese, the Little Flower, it is not what you do but how you do it that counts. St. Therese went to the convent when she was very young and died there when she was a young adult. Yet she is the patron saint of missionaries. How she did her daily task made her great. Dorothy called it the ‘little way’ and encouraged Catholic Workers to give their all to whatever they do, washing dishes or taking a nonviolent action against violence. This is the essence of work, how we do it, which makes work great or not. In this light, even working the garden can be work.

All life is work and work is what we make it. After this philosophical posting, I need to take a few days off from posting and come back more grounded in postings with more earthy words. It is time to go fishing again. The Diary of Worm will resume next Wednesday. Have a good Labor Day every day.

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