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  • From: Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>
  • To: Homestead <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Homestead] Living in the ruts
  • Date: Sun, 13 Jul 2008 08:47:34 -0500

LIVING IN THE RUTS

Decades of living with a steep, hard-to-maintain road have shown me that most people stay in the ruts. A steep road with a single driving path becomes a very rough road as rain runs down the ruts and makes gullies. I have suggested, advised, asked, begged, pleaded, and cajoled visitors to please drive to one side or another, anywhere but the common path. Drive where no wheel tracks are visible. Drive to pack down loose dirt. Please don’t drive in the ruts. They nod agreeably and leave. When next I go onto the road I can see that they drove in the ruts.

I have placed obstacles in the ruts, sizable stones. Reminders. Drivers veer around the stones and back into the ruts. The road is four-tenths of a mile long and placing stones close together in two wheel ruts is beyond reasonable time use.

Driving in the ruts requires the least amount of thinking. Some people lead lives in the same way. They see what others are doing and do the same. Sometime late in their lives they may ask themselves the classic question: is that all there is? Well, no, there is much more. To find it requires getting out of the ruts.

Cutting corners is another example of insufficient mental engagement. A friend recently came for an extended stay. He drove down the driveway, probably in the ruts, across the elevated crossing, and turned to drive across the stream at the near end. The water there is perhaps three inches deep. Having thought about the water feature challenge for a couple thousand miles, he focused on getting across without becoming bogged down. That focus got his pickup through the water just fine but it darn near tipped his travel trailer, because he cut the corner and the trailer wheel dropped into a hole.

Now this is a man who during part of his formative years lived on a farm. Farm boys learn about the consequences of cutting corners. Gateposts are a common victim and tipped loads of hay bales are another. I myself, at age sixteen, was told to stay on the tractor while three old men reloaded the wagon I had just abruptly unloaded by turning too tight uphill. Fifty-six years later I still remember the face burn.

To cut corners and to drive and live in the ruts requires the least amount of thinking. It also pays the least rewards. So, engage that power in your head. Davy Crockett said, “Be sure you’re right, then go ahead.” I’ve played with putting the emphasis on different words in that admonition. For today, I will emphasize the word, “then.” Better to pause before proceeding than to drop into a hole.



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