The Right Tool for the Job

Last week, Calvin gave me a hand carved wooden pen shaped like a samurai with a wide sun hat and a colorful little wooden sword. He said he got the pen while in Mexico, where there are few samurais, to my knowledge. Since the pen was obviously not constructed to be a writing utensil, I stood it up in the soil of a potted plant. The little dude fit in well. Still certain the figure was a Mexican samurai, I looked at him as this little “warrior in the garden”.

This morning, as I was writing at the desk where the pot and soldier reside, I made the swift connection that the chances of the figure being modeled after a samurai are next to 0 and that it was far more likely just a farmer with a cool hat and a hoe. Duh. So now I have this gardener in a garden.

My life has been seasoned with this tale of shepherds and wolves and sheep. I learned it’s right to stand up for those around me and be the warrior in a garden, because the alternative was to be some aloof brand of gardener in the war. It’s noble to strive to be some type of protector or shepherd of those you love, but if I’m being entirely transparent, I’ve only had a couple opportunities to “protect” anyone ever: One juvenile bar fight and one childhood bus stop spat, and if my memory serves me right, I even messed those up. I have, however, been a consistent source of light and nurturing for those in my life. I propagate confidence in those I love and aggregate attention when people need it. I’m a shit shepherd, but I’m a really fucking good farmer. 

I have a boyish fondness of duty and protection, and I agree that it’s better to be the warrior in a garden than a gardener in a war, but even then, the only difference is one is dead and useless and the other is alive and still useless. It’s way better to be a gardener in a garden than any other analogy I can stretch for you. It’s becoming more obvious that more people in America need to be nurtured than eliminated and little more gardening could prevent some wars altogether.

Defund police and fund social services. We need more gardeners.