“TRANQUILLITY. Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable."
I love the youtube clip of Bill Mollison and his thinking man's potatoes.
To me this is tranquillity. Cambridge defines it as a peaceful, calm state, without noise, violence, worry, etc.:
Ole Bill wheels out the trash of the world, throws it down, and lets it turn to the "profits" of doom to yield for himself. He tells us it's the best use for advertising and news.
He knows digging causes work and work causes digging.
Weeds cause work and digging causes weeds.
This vicious cycle he mentions does not allow for tranquillity. These headlines cause grief, fear, worry, violence, and noise. You cannot feed your mind tranquillity if you feed it with the trash of society.
Mollison communicates, I believe a deeper thread. We dig ourselves into holes that cause us extra work. We find we are in the hole and keep digging. Weeds invade our bare soil in order to make something productive in our life no matter how deep our hole. The weeds theifs steal our time, mineral, and energy. By us digging deeper and wider, mother nature fills our life with distractions and sets the stage for succession to another opportunity. Shallow-rooted, poor-yielding, fast-acting weeds take over in our life. And typically as Bill says
"It's a vicious cycle".
The cool thing is you have the tools to dig out. You can re-mulch. You can fill in the hole in the soil. The profile will never be the same but you can re-fill it.
Poor Richard reminds us not to fret over "accidents common or unavoidable.". In 100 years few will care or remember. Enjoy the growth and mulching along the way. Take a designed nap as Mr. Mollison did in the garden. Bill knew the plants will get you in the end.
Why worry? Apply tranquillity and keep the noise down.
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