Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Farm labor

I visited a friend's farm on a recent warm, sunny Sunday and stopped halfway up the driveway to say hi to her husband, who was spreading a mixture of grass seed and crabgrass retardant. After that, he told me, he had some bulbs to plant. And if the light held out, he was even going to tackle the manure pile, which was so full that his wife could barely dump a wheelbarrow into it.
This guy's enthusiasm for doing physical labor around the farm and operating heavy machinery tickles me to no end. Here is a man with a very responsible, demanding job who wears a suit to work (except on casual Friday). He handles big chunks of other people's money. He has assistants working for him.
And yet, as soon as he leaves the office, he sheds his executive persona and puts behind him the quirks of the stock market and his clients. I think it's very healthy: You should see him grinning as he drives up the steep driveway in the front-end loader, ready to dump a pile of manure.

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