The past three or four mornings I’ve been up shortly after daylight working in my garden. It’s tiresome, and that’s a weary hour for me, but in 95 degree weather it’s early morning or not at all.

As I work in the garden or on the farm I think about alot of things and appreciate being rooted in the basics of life: sweat, manure, death, life, abscesses, foot rot, retained placenta, and the joy of a harvested crop in the barn. As I thought about recent news events I found myself wondering if Michael Jackson had ever grown a tomato.

As you know, Jackson died a couple of days ago. What a weird, miserable, confused individual. It didn’t have to be that way. Somewhere along the way he lost his rootedness and foundation. Maybe he never had it. But more likely the entertainment industry machine ate away his soul.

I think keeping a finger in the dirt is an important strategy for staying in touch with the basics. Growing tomatoes is a good balance to staying at those high-end, expensive resorts where they spritz your face with chilled Evian.

Today I went fishing with my girls. Rule #1: Bait your own hook. Those pretty manicured fingernails need some worm guts under them. It’ll help the girls to remember how the other half lives, and hopefully keep them rooted while they are being spoiled with manicures, tennis lessons, and trips to American Girl.  

It’s 10:30 p.m. and I’m off to bed. It’s Summer vacation for the girls, so before they turn in tonight they’ve got to go back to the barn to bottle feed a couple of baby goats. That keeps ’em rooted too, I hope.

I don’t know if my kids will grow up well-balanced, but I’m going to be sure they know how to shovel manure and grow their own tomatoes.