Ever notice that finding balance in everything we do is
paramount to a happy life? We live in a
world where sometimes; if a little bit of something is good, then, a lot isn’t
necessarily better. Take for instance, a
camp fire. Who doesn’t like the crackling sounds and the smell of a campfire?
Ah yes, a nice little campfire in the woods is indeed a wonderful thing. However, too much fire and we have a dangerous,
out of control, forest fire. A much
needed drenching rain is a great way to clear the air and bring moisture back
to the earth. Once again, too much rain
and you have flood waters and carp in your basement. Yes, balance is the key to
a good and happy world. This year’s
Summer Olympics coverage was a good example of how necessary “balance” is. Now don’t get me wrong, “Farmer Tony” here enjoys
watching finely toned female bodies in bathing suits, playing volleyball in the
sand, as much as the next warm blooded man. However, I think NBC took the
volleyball event a little too serious. It
seemed like every time I went to watch the Olympics, they were always televising
volleyball! I thought to myself, “mmm…OK, the girls are cute, but how about a
little more variety of televised events.”
Really? Would a little more than
two minutes of say, judo or fencing really hurt the viewership of the Olympics? And yes, I know that NBC had other events on
some of their other networks, but I really wasn’t ready to start watching table
tennis at 4 A.M. In fact, one afternoon
I was so desperate for an O-T-V (other than volleyball) Olympic event that I
even ended up watching the dressage horse event. And no disrespect to my horse loving friends,
but I still don’t know how that event works or even how they score it. But I
digress… Balance is the thing that keeps
us on the path to a good life, especially in regards to things like our
personal health. A little coffee in the
morning tends to be the key to the start of a good day. Too much caffeine and the boss is riding you
like a rented mule! Health experts
believe a glass or two of red wine a day is a heart healthy thing to do. A bottle or two of red wine a day, you’re
eventually looking for a new liver. So,
how do we find balance in our personal life?
These day’s it tough. We are inundated
with messages everywhere we go, everything we watch and everything we read,
that we must have, do, be, and buy more!
We have to drive the “ultimate
driving machine” (BMW). When we do home
improvement jobs around the house we get to enjoy “more saving, more doing”
(Home Depot). Buy a Dell computer and “get
more out of now”. And don’t forget to
pay for your new laptop with your American Express card and you can…”do more”. In our American world, it always more, much
more! It’s not easy, but finding balance
is a trick that our elders seem to have a good grasp of. My grandparents, as well as several of my
aunts and uncles didn’t have much, as they were farm laborers most of their
lives, but managed to scratch out good lives by understanding the meaning of
balance. We learned growing up that
sometimes having less money meant adding more love to the equation to balance
things out. No matter what the
situation, things would eventually work out for the better. For
some, God is the way to balance out the universe in an otherwise unstable and
unpredictable existence. And still for
others, pets can have an uncanny way of helping people stay on an even
keel. But no matter who or what it is
that helps to remind you that balance is the key, the lesson is to “understand”
the value of balance. Balance keeps us
out of trouble, it keeps us healthier, and hopefully, more sane. It allows us to be close to our loved ones,
and helps us become successful at work.
It teaches us how to raise our kids and how to ultimately live our lives
the way we need to. And who
knows, maybe by the time the Winter Olympics rolls around, maybe the networks
will find a way to balance out the event schedule and we won’t have to sit thru
too much ice skating. One can always
hope.
I’ll see you in the groves.
-Farmer Tony
