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When my children were growing up we would read the story of the city mouse and country mouse visiting each others’ home.  As it turned out, the city mouse did not appreciate what was served for dinner; his palate was too refined for simple country fare.  When the invitation to visit was reversed, the mice ended up running for their lives from dangers in the city.  I remember thinking at the time it seems odd that such focus should be placed on differences between people simply based on where they live.   But then I read Kristen Kimball’s book The Dirty Life: A Memoir of Farming, Food, and Love.  Kimball’s transition from city maven to country girl is a modern reflection on the classic mouse fable.

In a striking lesson at the center of her book, Kimball explains what she learned about her views of other peoples’ lives.  In her own words [Quote], “I had come to the farm with the unarticulated belief that concrete things were for dumb people and abstract things were for smart people.  I thought the physical world—the trades—was the place you ended up if you weren’t bright or ambitious enough to handle a white-collar job.  Did I really think that a person with a genius for fixing engines, or for building, or for husbanding cows, was less brilliant than a person who writes ad copy or interprets the law?  Apparently I did.” [End Quote]  Kimball’s snobbery is kicked out of her both by hard work in the earth and animals on the farm.  The true-life transition over seven years from city to country make one glad to read about lessons learned.

But one cannot dabble in farming.  Once, Kimball writes, a man bought a big piece of nearby land.  At dinner Kimball overheard him say, [Quote] “In my retirement, I just want to be a simple farmer.  I want tranquility.” [End Quote]  Kimball’s response is that tranquil and farming do not go together.  She knows the lesson full well.  After one year of farming, Kimball took a getaway trip to Hawai’i.  On the islands she experienced a different kind of farming; one unknown to her.  Realizing how much she missed her farm and her husband [Quote] “I got married, in my heart.  There is no such thing as escape after all, only an exchange of one set of difficulties for another.  It wasn’t my husband or the farm or marriage I was trying to shake loose from but my own imperfect self.  I couldn’t wait to get home.” [End Quote][1] 

I couldn’t wait to get home.  Kimball’s book reminds me again of the city mouse and the country mouse.  Each mouse couldn’t wait to get to his own home because there is no place like home—a lesson for us all.  For Moody Radio, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, personally seeking truth wherever it’s found.

24 hours before any trip away from home Mark says the same thing, “I wish I didn’t have to go.”  Tweet or share.  To be read on Moody Radio, spring, 2012.