Vim, Vigor and Vitality

"Vim Vigor and Vitality:  Nothing in nature ever stands still. Things either progress, advance and develop, Or they degenerate and disintegrate." 

This is one of my favorite pictures because the Dutch people are full of vim, vigor and vitality.  They are strapping tall, active people with zest.  They work more, walk more, eat less and enjoy more.  They are examples of vitality.

 LuAnn and I were talking about young men that we know.  They are smart, caring, quiet and good workers but I said they have no "vim, vigor or vitality."

 LuAnn had never heard this expression so I thought I would expound on it.   Some of our best young men today are not self starters.  They've never had to figure out how to survive on their own.  On the other hand, the ones who have that vim and vigor often seem to drop out of school or not pursue a worthy dream.  They often fall into bad habits and bad things they never seem to be able to shake.  

You can point your fingers to a lot of things that have happened to them since they were born or even before they were born.  Their parents choices often reflect in them.  It's an observation of mine and nothing too critical because I surely am not perfect.   I've been able to work hard and accomplish something in my life without a lot of help, our children have too. 

I give credit to parenting from a long line of folks that were raised the same way.  We were taught responsibility at a young age and were corrected when we headed the wrong direction.  We seem to be a smaller and smaller minority all my life.   Maybe I am being to critical here but no wonder we see society struggling when too many depend on the government or someone else to provide their necessities. 

I think the caring of livestock and learning how to produce the feed them were critical points in my development.  Most people do not have this today, so how do we teach this without living on a farm?  Anyone in my county can have a garden and most of them can raise a pig or a chicken so they can learn these important life pieces through 4-H and FFA.  Still, so few of the worlds people have access to these programs.

The young men we were talking about will be OK as long as someone with more vim, vigor and vitality is leading them.  They are good workers, and that trait is more difficult to find all the time.  Ask any farmer or employer who tries to find good help.  

This long early spring has been hard on my vim, vigor and vitality.  I had to push myself  yesterday to get anything accomplished.  Saturday is Seed School at Ohio Seed Improvement Association so we will be discussing the vim, vigor and vitality of seed and crops in this blog.

Thanks,

Ed Winkle