Thanks to the extreme weather, garden season has started early this year. That means it’s time for me to pull out my weapons of mass destruction and pump myself up to start my annual killing spree.
I’m going to be planting peas, which most people might see as a positive thing. Thoreau, for example, said he worked to make the earth say “beans!” instead of “weeds!” and that’s a good thing, isn’t it? But because I like to follow Thoreau’s best advice, which is “to live deliberately,” I never forget that for every pea I grow, some other poor plant, worm, bug, or microorganism is going to have to die.
Failing to keep this balance in mind is, I believe, how we modern Americans have gotten ourselves into so much trouble. We easily see our positive goals, such as providing cheap water to a large city, but we fail to see how every action we take has negative consequences as well—such as cheap water is often filled with lead. So when I go out to my garden, I am very aware that I’m not just planting peas–I’m interfering with the Natural World. In order for me to get what I want, something else is going to have to die.
It may sound as if I dwell on the negative. I don’t. I dwell on Balance, because that’s the only way to curb my homicidal tendencies. It would be easier for me to buy peas, but how many things have to die when a package of peas is shipped to my house? No, when I kill, I want to kill deliberately and get my hands nice and dirty, because that’s the only way I know to honor the sacrifice of all those innocent lives I’m about to take.
So, to those who are about to die, I salute you . . .
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