From the Farm

The most frustrating part about this experience has been myself. For some reason, I thought when I transplanted myself here, changing my routine, my surroundings, and my interactions, I would miraculously become a different person. I was wrong and I'm glad I was wrong because my time over here has given me ample opportunities to learn more about who I am, but I can't help but be frustrated by the fact I am still plagued with the same problems I encounter in New York and Los Angeles. Last week, upon the recommendation of a professor and a behavioral economist I had a drink with in Amsterdam, I read a phenomenal book called Scarcity. The book looks at the similar psychological ramifications of scarcity as it relates to many disparate fields such as money, time, and food. It theorizes that scarcity captures the mind and "taxes" an individual's bandwidth, the authors catch-all term for fluid intelligence and executive control (mental agility and impulse control). It...

He was a young man who farmed in the Netherlands and he had spent most of his time weeding. Here I am, being outstanding in my field. While I would love to make my work this week into an allegory of Hemingway's novel, I cannot. It was a different kind of journey, emotionally challenging in its own right but not within the framework of Old Man and the Sea. Instead, I will tell my story without such a literary ploy but with reference to how the book helped me persevere. Throughout the week, one thought of Santiago's (the Old Man) rang through my head: "Every day is a new day. It is better to be lucky. But I would rather be exact. Then when luck comes you are ready." My thoughts don't have the same abbreviated sentence structure but replace "exact" with "willing" and there you have my mantra so far this week. On Tuesday morning (the start of my work week), Gert Jan sent Chiel and I to weed the strawberry field, the farm's largest field...

A photo I took while leaving Deventer and heading to Hof van Twello for the first time The greenhouses on the farm, in the photo you can see a signpost which points to the barefoot trail (a tourist attraction which is exactly what it sounds like), the farmshop, and the cafe A shot of the vineyard at Hof van Twello My worst enemy, stinging nettle. I hate this plant so much and it is all over the farm; each time I brush into it, I am let with a burning sensation and a gnarly rash The bed that Camille 1 and I weeded and then planted with cabbage, fennel, and lettuce   A picture I took Monday morning during my stroll through the farm. Hof van Twello has a garden system where they rent out plots of land for no charge to gardeners in exchange that half of their produce is donated to the farmshop. The cabbage patch we weeded Thursday afternoon  A picture of a zucchini plant from the bed I was harvesting The leeks we planted Green bea...

One Week on the Farm ( Meditations ) Though the week has been tumultuous, with my body rapidly switching between exhaustion and ebullience, I think I finally have my feet planted. I meant to write sooner, but six hours of farm labor plus two hours of house chores tend to wipe me out by the end of the day. The one constant of the week has been my slow reading of Marcus Aurelius' Meditations , the seminal book of Stoicism. Though I've learned I am definitely not a Stoic, I have enjoyed trying to understand a philosophy foreign to my own sensibilities; the theme of the book I have most embraced is the concentration on the present moment, on which he writes: "workest at that which is before thee, following right reason seriously, vigorously, calmly, without allowing anything else to distract thee, but keeping thy [thoughts] pure, as if thou shouldst be bound to give [them] back immediately; if thou holdest to this, expecting nothing, fearing nothing, but satisfied wit...

Amsterdamn ( The Odyssey ) These past three days in Amsterdam were... difficult. Though I had a terrific time exploring the city/ spending quality time with my mom, some events occurred not even delicious beer could get the bad taste out of my mouth. Ultimately, the words Athena said to Telemachus at the beginning of Homer's Odyssey kept my spirits up; upon hearing his lamentations about his destined trek she remarked "Childishness no longer beseems your years: you must put it away." Many times over this weekend, my childishness came to bear but in each instance, maybe after a moment of wallowing, I put it away and enjoyed my journey. It's easiest to tell my epic weekend in chronological order: Day Een: Have you ever flown economy class for eight hours? If you have, you realize that no matter how skinny your neighbor is or how decent the meals are, its a rough time (and if you haven't, you're lucky). But the part of the flight I most dread occ...