What I Love About the MidWest

Being an Army brat, I've been lucky enough to travel a lot over the course of my life. So the idea that I need to keep my ears open and my mouth shut to get to know the lay of the land is a familiar one for me. I don't want to dislocate my shoulder patting myself on the back about how open-minded I am; but the ability to acclimate myself to unfamiliar surroundings, to not be afraid to expose my own ignorance, and a willingness to accept information and good advice from (what some might consider to be) unlikely sources is something I pride myself on.

The other day I mentioned that I'm really enjoying being out of my comfort zone while I'm out in the hinterlands. So again I find myself in agreement with Atlantic blogger Ta-Nehisi Coates who says that, " . . . quite of few of us writers . . . would benefit by living somewhere else besides New York or Washington, D.C. I don't think we always understand the diversity of the country. I'm talking beyond race, gender and sexual orientation."

WifeRat is from North Dakota and often accuses me of being a "ruralist" because I grew up with no idea how people who don't live in large metropolitan live their lives. As much as I'm ignorant of rural life, I'm also disdainful of what I had always assumed rural life was all about. I lay the blame for that particular deficiency and prejudice squarely at the feet of the mainstream media. But perhaps more than the media devalues rural life, it usually just ignores it as if there is nothing of value that happens in the derisively named "fly over country."

Living out here you learn interesting stuff, the men and women who live and work on the farms and ranches that provide food for us generally lead interesting and varied lives. They have funny stories to tell and knowledge to share that, while seemingly disconnected from city life, add to life's rich pageant. Just last night I learned how to poach cattle from a neighboring ranch (you cut the brand off and feed it to a very hungry dog), not something I ever plan on doing but something I'm glad I know. My father-in-law was a potato farmer for 35+ years and when we drove to Winnipeg earlier this year he could identify the crops that were growing by the side of the road, where they were in their development cycle, and what the farmer who was growing those crops needed to have a good harvest. I don't know about y'all, but I found the breadth and depth of his knowledge to be nothing short of amazing.

As I reflect more and more on what it is I gain from hearing from about poaching cattle and growing crops, what I find is that it's not so much that I have new facts that I can put to use in my daily life, but that I'm humbled by how little I know about something (food production) that's so important to my life. This revelation about the limits of my own knowledge gives me a humility that will serve me well in all areas of my life.