A little old farm

I am not a farmer but, I grew up farm adjacent which makes me farmer adjacent. Well, that is not really a thing but I did grow up in a little town that was surrounded by farmland and some of the best wineries in the world. I really miss having a decent glass of wine at the end of the day like I did once upon a time yet, my wife can't drink wine anymore and it just goes to waste. Drinking alone is not my thing.

Lately, I have been thinking about all the things that I haven't been doing over the last few years while taking care of all the things I have been doing. The last time I went out at night with a friend was August last year, the last time my wife and I had a night off together was 11 months ago on my birthday. Life has taken its toll on living life but I don't complain too much because I understand that there are much worse experiences out there than the one we live yet, we can only know what we know.

Why I see my self as lucky is that while it is tough and the last six months especially have put us under a mass of financial pressure, I have not only been able to increase my inputs, I have also been able to increase my outputs. I can't imagine what life would have been if I was unable to increase my workload significantly and I am glad that I have been able to prove to myself that I am capable to endure up until this point. I have been in plenty of tight situations before but, not with a family that depends on me. Living without alone I can do and have done, it is different when others are involved.

But, here I am still able to write a few words on the Steem blockchain and earn some seeds that I keep planting in the hope that one day, the rains come, the sun follows and the crop grows to open up enough space that those who depend on me, need not as there will be a surplus. Surplus is something there has never really been in my lifetime, very little disposable income.

I actually find the term interesting as it essentially means, money to waste. Why would anyone waste money? It is a tool that can be utilized for a whole range of quality adding activities yet, people tend to throw it away frivolously when they do have any excess, even if it leaves them in a bad position not too long after. Instant gratification until buyers remorse sets in yet, most do not realize they do it to themselves. I think I have been guilty of this enough in my life to recognize it in others.

What I do know for myself is that I am not content with my current life situation but accept it as testimony of my own actions throughout my near 40 years. It is interesting I think how many people know all of the things that others should be doing yet they themselves are struggling to make ends meet, fighting depression, suffering in their health. You'd think they would be preaching the opposite but instead have the gall to advise people to be like them.

It is amazing to see how many people are suffering in various ways but do not recognize the role they play and how their predispositions and choices made on preference have led them to this very moment. It is easy to claim not having access to opportunity but, that is not generally the case of it. I was thinking about this in the case of the pre-mine on Steem, how many at that time would have had the knowledge, resources and taken the risk to mine Steem even if they knew about it back in 2016? Easy in hindsight but looking forward?

As I have said before, Steem is where I am both harvesting and planting. I harvest Steem through my words and ideas that I put forward, I plant that Steem back into the system in various ways in the hope that some of it will take root and grow into something of value. In my opinion, it is no different than learning a trade in the hope that it can be utilized in the future. Steem is not the goal, Steem is just a tool. What one can do with Steem is what is important.

Yes, buy stuff and play games but, what is bought, what games? What am I able to invest my Steem or, my vote into in the future? Will it be useful or useless it is too early to tell but I am calculating that in a few years from now, the hand full of Steem I hold is going to be a very versatile value tool that can be directed and focused in multiple ways and even used simultaneously.

While not there yet, Resource Credits are going to be a value mechanism even though they do not have drawing power on the Steem inflation pool. They are the bandwidth, they are the energy that can be formed in various ways to create a whole range of things plus, provide others with access to those things. People look at the system now and can't imagine what it is capable of in in regards to what it could already do, let alone the things that it hasn't come close to being tasked with yet.

But, I think about my family too, I think about being able to provide something for my daughter who is likely to grow up in a world with diminished education and employment opportunity in a polluted ecosystem where illness and premature death is the norm. Yes, it might be on the other side of the world but, does that make it alright? What if she wants to do something about it, what if she wants to try? We definitely aren't giving it much of a try to improve the future situation ourselves. Mostly, we just pretend to care, virtue signal and then stay passive.

If in 16 years when my daughter gets the keys to her account, the inflation rate on Steem is a steady 1% and she has significant draw on the pool because her Daddy held for her, I wonder... I wonder what she would use her Steem seeds for, I wonder how she would vote, where she would see value? It is hard to say right now but, I work under the assumption that she is going to be much wiser than myself and therefore, would use it better.

What if what I do now never benefits me but it does provide her the chance to invest into herself, others and all kinds of developments that help improve lives? Is my life wasted because I didn't benefit directly from my actions?

When I was growing up around those farms a lot of my friends were the children of farmers and by near default, could use their hands to create and repair, they learned the skills of the trade. Lots of those farms were near two hundred years old and once upon a time, one of their relatives sowed the first seeds, planted the first vine that would grow to later become an award winning wine producer.

People forget that while they are sipping their wine, drinking a beer or enjoying a cup of coffee, seeds were planted, work was done and, it was all started by people who had long passed but were willing to begin the process, even if they would never see its end.

Perhaps that is the point of farming though, it doesn't end if you tend to its needs, nurture its strengths and of course, understand its nature.

Taraz
[ a Steem original ]

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