On Saturday, the girls and I braved the freakishly unseasonably hot 90+ degree heat to attend the 22nd Annual Sheepshearing Festival in Waltham at Gore Place. There were sheep! And they were shorn! The rather sheepish looking sheepshearer appeared positively baffled at the surrounding throngs who were cheering, clapping, and snapping photos as he did his work.
I need more time to spin out my thoughts on the feelings of differentness I felt as a city dweller, witnessing the spectacle that is “work that occurs on a farm.” Even fresh from the rural areas of Greensboro, NC, where I passed fields and farms every day, I still feel far removed from the food I eat, the clothes I wear. I don’t think long enough of the work of bringing the food to harvest, of caring for the animals I rely on for protein, dairy, and the clothes that I wear. It’s a separation that I feel as a wrongness in my life. I want more connection.
Of course, I say this, and yet I can’t even seem to find the time to help my friend with our community garden initiative. So, really, I want more time, first. And then, more connection to the land. Maybe if I could pull myself away from this computer and the wireless convenience and one-click shopping, the gleaning knowledge from searches on wikipedia, and futzing around with my digital photography, I could make the time to change my relationship with my world.
But right now, I have to upload photos to my flickr, update my website, and print googlemaps directions to a 7-year-old’s birthday party.
Yeah, it’s a conundrum…..