In the Garden

Objectivism

In the Garden

Shared Observations

By Stephen L. Wilmeth

 

            A walk in the garden the day this was written was the highlight.

            The immensity of that never wanes. It was presented not in a church or any formal setting, but it was gift from my maternal grandfather. His interpretation came in the form of the song. He sang it often. Riding down the road in the pickup he would sing, and I was his audience. Sitting at the kitchen table waiting for sunup he would strike up the song, and I was his audience. Sitting on the porch in the cool of a Gila River evening he would sing, and I was his audience.

If there remains an anthem of his life here on earth and what he impressed upon me, I remain the audience.

Contrary to the world we live in, there are still a great number of us who live with the hope that man can be a heroic being, with the ability to create our own happiness, and to seek and set forth a moral slate and purpose in life.

The belief that productive achievement can be the noblest of all earthly activities and that reason is one of the only a handful of absolutes is our lingering and linked standard. The world around us, however, doesn’t seem to support such a premise and we find ourselves standing in tighter and closer quarters.

Indeed, a walk in the garden is more important every day.

Objectivism

 A load of bred heifers came home to us this week.

They were sold to a premier red Angus operation early in the spring. The hope that a longer-term deal could be struck in the sale was the motive, but as the killing drought of 2019 played out, those heifers and their first calves became a subject of central focus. Younger cattle in desert conditions is not just a standard practice it is a constant demand. We need their infusion as replacements. So, we bought part of them back.

As they were counted off the truck after 14 hours of travel, the attempt to recognize individuals was largely for naught. They had changed dramatically while doubling their weight from the conditions of abundant 2019 moisture in the Flint Hills.

There was certainly a hint of pride in them.

They are a product of our efforts. The greatest percentage of their mothers are still on the ranch and there is the likelihood that the waters they find and the grass they eat will be familiar to them. They will qualify as located cattle.

In more ways than one, their physical form qualifies as a work of art. Through years of selective reproduction, they have evolved into a form somewhat unique to this land. A rancher can comprehend that.

Viewed from the perspective of this life’s work, emotion naturally emerges.

Shared Observations

There is a growing alarm amongst the folks across our country. It is fueled by distrust.

In the case of the business of ranching, it is amplified by the judgments of the few who seem to think they have priority insight into how our relationship with nature should be managed. Their tendency is not new nor is the observation and interpretation of the process. What is new is that it is happening on our home turf. We view it as the outcome and change of governance, but, in the most fundamental state, it is the forced separation from natural laws and the abandonment of God. People like C.S Lewis and Ayn Rand described the process long before most of us were even born so the superlatives of uniqueness to our surroundings are not warranted.

It is a universal problem and it surfaces each and every time the elites stir the pot and conjure up yet another form of modern existence, invent another institution of total control, and once again cast unwarranted judgment on how we interact with the world around us. What they can only accomplish is to breach the form and function of our customs and culture and transfer the rule of our lives to other men who can never have our best interests in mind.

We believe that traditional morality and a productive relationship with nature is inexorably linked. Through separation from a natural state, too much of the world doesn’t seem to understand that. It is resulting in greater antagonism toward natural law and the loss of our liberty.

Rand’s words are cutting, and they deserve highlight.

When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing … When you see that money is flowing to those who deal not in goods but in favors … When you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you …
When you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice … You may know that your society is doomed.

In the Garden

The heifers were inspected by the brand inspector and she gave them a heads up with a pass to be turned out. That was done last night, and I departed to go repair a leaking trough before I left the ranch. Upon completion of that task, the need to see how they were doing was a priority so a drive back to the headquarters was in order.

Two dozen of them remained in the water lot eating on a big bale that I had thrown out to hold them up before they left. The rest were nowhere to be found. They had left in a high trot only in the way unsupervised, adolescent cattle will do.

So, I will go look for them this morning to admire them, to worry about them, and to wonder what the ones I can’t find are doing.

In the process … I’ll walk in The Garden.

Stephen L. Wilmeth is a rancher from southern New Mexico.