A Day for Thinking

Activities: It only got down to 34 over night (33 just before the sun came up). This means there was no critical test of the cold frame I installed last night. On the other hand, its only purpose is not to defer freezing, but also to provide a little extra warmth. The bigger test therefore is to see whether or not thnigs under its cover start to thrive a bit better.

I did go out to just look this morning. The covered cold frame looks fine. I picked up a handful of ripe Marino (Roma) tomatoes. I'm not sure exactly what to do with these. I don't seem to get enough at any given time to actually process into paste.

The day I started the blog, I went to the Google blog search site and searched for "garden." The first entry that popped up was a note that the blogger was sad because it was the end of the season and they had just put the garden under for the year. I was just starting something up in the garden. Why put your garden under just because the summer growing season is over? I remember I used to think that way. I no longer do. I eat all year. But, I am also the beneficiary of having read Eliot Coleman's Four Season Harvest. As I drive around my area, there are many flat ground vegetable gardeners who have, indeed, put their gardens under. There are a few who raise broccoli, cabbage. collards, cauliflower, and turnip greens. The fall/winter garden can provide a variety of foods. The cold frame is key.

Thinking: Tuesday evenings I spend at the Greensboro Family History Center. I have too little time between work and my assignment to spend time in the garden. So, its a time I can use to think.

The topic "sufficient for our need" was selected as a theme for my blog quite on purpose. It's a concept that I have been thinking about for a long time. The first time I heard the term, it was used in response to a question about money. And, to be honest, money seems to be important to people, especially some people. The need for money, the love of money, the value of money are all old topics. Nothing new there. And there are a lot of commentaries and quips about the importance of money. There are quotes like, You can never be too rich or too thin. and Money isn't the most important thing in the world, but it's ahead of whatever is in second place. Comments like these, are often made in defense of having wealth or a desire to have more than you've got. And, from the outset, there is no use arguing about it. Especially in a time of recession, telling people that money isn't important would seem to be total folly.

But there is a difference between poverty and wealth and having sufficient for your needs. When you are wealthy, by definition, you have more than you need. When you are poor, again by definition, you have less than you need. And it's not necessarily being cursed with poverty or blessed by wealth that is the issue I think about. In many ways, it would appear that people not satisfied with having sufficient for their needs are those who have put the rest of us in dire straits.

While not for everyone, I find that wanting no more than I need and being satisfied when I have sufficient for my needs is a key to well being and happiness.

I got a call at work today from Chad Werch. We talked about the business of research. At one point, he asked how I was doing. My response was, "We have sufficient for our needs." When I said it, it actually surprised me. It's a different response, isn't it, than focusing on whether sales or income is up or down from the previous year? I actually did look at our income and bank accounts at work today. I'm very glad that we have money in the bank and I know from past experience that being in debt would bother me terribly. But in fact, based on what I saw, we have sufficient for our needs. For the moment, we may actually have a little more than that, but life is self-correcting and there won't be a surplus for long.

So, whether it's money, or food, or friends, or housing, I think the key is hoping and striving to have sufficiency.

Knowing what that is, is not necessarily easy. Last night I went with Jenna to Best Buy. She has her allowance and wanted something. She ended up not finding what she was looking for and I was proud of her that she didn't spend her allowance foolishly. However, she did make me walk with her over to the cell phone aisle where she drooled over a couple of cell phones that her friends have. Does an 11 year old need a new cell phone, or is the one she currently has that was a hand-me-down sufficient for her needs? We just looked, but I worry about how to teach her, without making her resent it, to recognize what her needs are and what will constitute sufficiency.