May 25, 2009
The Case for Working With Your Hands
I have the pleasure of periodic visits to Italy. There’s an 84 year old farmer (contadino) named Guido in our village of Radicondoli. While the world would have seemed to have passed by this wise and savvy contadino over the past decades, a case can be made for the exact opposite. Guido Castellini’s quality of life has always been high, if you measure it by the quality of food on his table and the sharpness of mind after eight plus decades. And the barter tradition that exchanges his glorious eggs for Carlo’s meat or Salvatore’s cheese for his olive oil, is suddenly the stuff of new and progressive blogs underwritten by WIRED. Guido Castellini has been working one plot of glorious land for the past six decades slyly aware that one day we’d likely be back full circle to celebrate in his definition of “quality of life”.
Pass me those artichokes and fresh ricotta would you please . . .
Enjoy this article from John Tierney of the NY Times on a related take on a similar subject.
Salve, Ron