We grew new things in the spring garden this year, a very satisfying experience. Truth be told, I don't really garden for the produce. I do enjoy the tomatoes, beans, basil, and fresh cucumbers. Having fresh greens in the front yard does help stretch our food budget. But we waste more of what's grown than we preserve. A personal failing of mine is that I've never been all that interested in preservation--of any resource, but especially food. But I do enjoy the flow of plenty. And if a garden provides, it usually provides plenitude. In that way a garden is a lot like a thrift shop or a library. Its a hall of yes, here, and take what you will. 

Generosity and plenitude are great reasons to garden. But I do it just to learn how things grow. I feel a new intimacy with beets, for instance, that I've never known before. Having plucked that "drilling whisker", having felt the tearing of a deep root in a thing that looks as if its merely sitting on the earth, to feel a beets activity...its something one must do to know. Carrots flirt on the surface as pretty people always will, but their hold and reach are deep. They don't let go easily, and they have to mature before they  are sweet.

Aunt Katherine, Dean Of Students, always admonished us to be sweet as we were walking out the door. It was her universal instruction for all children. Be sweet. I never once heard her say "be smart." I guess she knew most children are already smart. Kindness is much harder to learn. And if learning how to be good at one thing makes a child more adept at learning anything, why not teach them how to be good at kindness first? I think kindness used to be a cultural standard but has slipped as our collective worship of pedagogy and expertise expands.

Which is to say, society is kind of obsessed with preservation, a form of hoarding and a hedge against uncertainty and mortality. There is some wisdom in it--a fennel sort of wisdom, I suppose. Its pretty and seems complex and weighty at first, reassuring. But reliance on experts hinders more than it helps. Too bad that's what society seems most anxious to teach the children.

Too bad you rarely hear anyone telling a child: Be Relaxed. Or: Be Unconcerned with Perfection. Be Less Impressed By Expertise. Why not: Be More Willing to Try It Yourself?