May: "Hoe handle" garden skills

Gene Logsdon wrote The Contrary Farmer.  He says, “The ability to manage manual labor efficiently require a list of attitudes and skills as long as a hoe handle.” 

In the early 21st century most people prefer jobs that are clean, sedentary, and housed in an interior, climate-controlled environment.  We live in an era of information-age workers who stare at computer screens all day and then go to the gym for some exercise.  We live in a culture that glorifies abstract work and classifies physical work on the land as an unpleasant, sweaty option.  In many people’s eyes, farmers have condemned themselves to a life of drudgery.  On the other hand, a farmer who works his or her own fields doesn’t need a gym or an aerobics class to get exercise.  

Manual labor is not much in evidence any more.  People tend to avoid bodily effort rather than embrace it -- unless, of course, you are a top-flight athlete.  To hit a chip shot onto the green or to smash a forehand down the line are well-regarded physical activities.  In our modern world, playing fields are far removed from growing fields, but I like to think that my sense of body placement and timing, honed by my farming practice, replicates the work of a quarterback as he throws for a touchdown.