Cidiot On a Motorbike

I’ll wave at anyone when I’m on my motorcycle.  There’s something about being out in the environment that makes me a bit friendlier.  Don’t know why.  Don’t care why.  I just like it.  I always wave at farmers, which I’m sure does nothing for them beyond have thoughts of “oh look…another cidiot!”  (Cidiot: noun, adj. Idiot from the city).

The simple truth of the matter is I have an enormous pile of respect for entire families who dedicate their lives to working the land and making it dead easy for me to find my three squares a day.  Think about it.  If you or I had to actually find our own food beyond the shelves of the local grocer it would be a crisis.  I honestly can’t imagine what I’d do and I hope to never find out.  I hope you never find out either.

As I roll along the wonderfully smooth roads of southern Ontario and ponder visions of a nice big steak, peaches & cream corn or some sweet berries it’s not lost on me where it all comes from.  What I cannot begin to comprehend is the work that goes into getting all this stuff to the local store or even better a roadside stand.  It doesn’t get much better than buying produce directly from the people who grew it.  Now buying meat directly from a farmer…I’ll leave that up to Mr. Sobey.

So anytime I see a farmer while I’m out on the bike I wave.  Most times they wave back but you can’t be certain as to what their thoughts are.  I’m off goofing around on a sunny afternoon while they’re hauling bales of hay or cutting a field or doing I don’t know what.  They’re working…and working hard.  I appreciate and respect the work they do because without them I’d be in a lot of trouble.  As we gobble up prime farmland around here in the name of “progress” I wonder if we’ve really thought it through.  I honestly think some figure we don’t need farms we have grocery stores.  I’m sure it’s not as simple as that but it’s something to ponder. 

Wave at a farmer.  They’ll wave back and think “…must be friends with that weirdo on the motorcycle”