"Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant."
: Robert Louis Stevenson
Um, excuse me Robert but I think I have a few problems with that.
By the end of a day harvesting and reaping I really don't have much time to consider if the outcome was any good. It's exhausting work concentrating hard on planting all the little things that are going to grow up into all the big things. You see, it's a problem with the size. I keep getting this daily bag of goodies that obviously offers all solutions to match all choices but everything in it is different, none of it is matched or fits together.
It's such a challenge to decide what to choose - they're all there but rolling around loose. You do understand that I'm supposed to do something with all these colours and shapes and whistles and bells don't you? What do you mean that I don't know what I'm doing - of course I bloody well don't!
Am I supposed to be a knowledge farmer, is there a book written for this? What seeds do I plant? How often do I plant them? Should I keep a record of what I planted where? Do I retrace my steps to make sure I planted well? Should I keep my planting to a schedule or just distribute them randomly? Is it a seasonal thing and do I need any fertilizer?
Gimme a break! About the only fertilizer my seeds have seems to be bullshit. Hey, I don't even know if some or all the seeds will grow and I certainly don't know when. Of course, some of the seeds may have been given to me by others who work this pasture, but how do I know they are good seeds? How does anyone know - maybe they're just blanks, duds, decoys put there to fool me.
Oh, and I forgot about the shape and size of the pasture, not to mention the weather. I don't really want contamination from some other farmer who might not have checked his seeds or the direction of the wind when he planted them. I may end up with a beautiful harvest of something I know nothing about.
How do I even know if my seeds have the right parentage. They don't actually come with a certificate of authenticity. What if the seeds were accidentally planted in Bernie Madoff's garden? Are they his seeds or mine when the time comes to harvest and then they may appear to be not actually anything at all?
How the hell am I ever going to get any time to even judge the harvest, I'm just too damned busy planting! You think I'll be sitting on my laurels counting all the seeds produced. I think not. I will be far too busy weeding out all the nasty little toxic things that threaten to wreak havoc on my pristine environment.
I've worked damn hard trying to establish a good seed planting program. I started young, been doing it for years. There is no way I am just going to stand back and let the harvest produce itself. Hey, this needs constant maintenance. I've decided to give up sleep and start patrolling at night. If I let this get out of hand the seeds will mutate into something horrible.
When I'm not planting I worry. I worry who might steal my seeds, exchange my seeds, play tricks with my seeds, teach them to do other things that I may never have intended - despicable things. I've taken to patrolling my seeds checking for viruses. And I wait for the little darlings to grow into a successful harvest. Now if they don't, then I will have this huge, hulking, stinking, fermenting, useless harvest and then that's gotta be dumped somewhere. I know where! I'll sneak over in the dead of night and just leave it neatly arranged on my neighbours property. He will think it's a bonus from all the seeds that he planted.
