Does education make you jaded?

[GaNewChick]

Quote:
That was a nice and thoughtful post...a breath of fresh air ~ some of the other forums I frequent really don't understand the South.

You mentioned clay ~ are you in Georgia?

 

[CheepSunglasses]

I am very fortunate in that DH and I both have advanced degrees in engineering, so I always have someone to talk to. Yep- we are total nerds. Regarding "the more degrees a person gets the dumber they become" There is some truth in that. The more education you have, the more you realize how much you DON'T know. When I was 16, I just knew everything. With two Master's degrees, most of a PhD and 50 plus years, I don't think I know much at all. I ask a lot of dumb questions on lists like this because I understand and accept my lack of knowledge.

As for being jaded, I think I understand what your professor meant. Education teaches you critical thinking, and once you start asking hard questions, you start getting uncomfortable answers. I have found that the things I used to have faith in as constants- the functioning of government, our place on the world stage, the "rightness" or "wrongness" of convictions I once held deeply, are not as I understood them. The world went from being black and white, good and bad, to gray and complicated. The one thing I still have confidence in is intention. While the road to H*ll may be paved with good ones, so is the road to Heaven. You control less than you think, but you can still control yourself and following your moral compass will help you to affect those around you in a positive way. It isn't a lot, but it gives me a measure of peace.

 

[meriruka]

No, not GA. south central VA. Didn't y'all have some serious flooding recently? Nice to hear you're not underwater!

 

[CheepSunglasses]

meriruka: I am a south central VA vegetarian! Where are you? We are in Nottoway County, about 15 miles south of Farmville. It was a culture shock for us, too. We have been here about three years, after moving from the DC area.

 

[GaNewChick]

Quote:
Yea, it was pretty bad for a few days...we are dried out, but another huge ban of rain is moving in for about 2 days ~ so now we are under a flash flood watch again.

 

[meriruka]

I'm a little northwest of South Boston, south of Brookneal.
Do your neighbors think you will drop dead from starvation any second because you don't eat meat?

 

[CheepSunglasses]

We are practically neighbors. Brookneal is a nice area. We are in Burkeville.

Folks here may be unsophisticated, but they were raised with the most beautiful manners. When they find out we are vegetarians, they normally hesitate and do a quick mental calculation to try to remember if they have ever said anything offensive, if we have ever said anything strange or critical, and then a quick appraisal to see if either of us looks terminally ill. Since normally none of those things are true, they continue to look for more common ground. We were tickled by the delicately worded question when we first arrived: "Do you have the time to attend church?" The DC area could learn a thing or two about tact from southsiders.

Your observations are consistent with what we've found. People are very quick to lend a hand, and they found out early that we are quick to help out, too. We have made some very good friends who share our interest in growing better food (we have family milk cows, as well as the chickens and garden).

I had to chuckle at your clay comment. When we first arrived, I mentioned the red clay to one of our neighbors and the fact that it seems to be everywhere. His dry reply: "Yup, but stuff grows in it." Unbelievably, it does. It retains moisture very well and holds up under livestock, so the pasture here is much more resilient than what we were used to. Gardens are a different story (as you know). We add a lot of manure, but they still take more work.

Where are you from originally?

 

[DianeB]

This makes me want to live in the South. It seems like there people do care. As I tried to say before, it is not about the education or intelligence, its the intent.

It sounds like those were you live take their knowledge and experience to help others. Eventhough they may not be sophisticated, they really do care about what is around them.

That is what I want see more of here in California. By the way, most of the young people here have at least some college. It still doesn't seem to have broaden their horizons. They are still shallow. (Not all, just quite a few.)

DB

 

[BarkerChickens]

Quote:
I agree 100% with the above!

 

[CheepSunglasses]

We came from the DC outskirts. I knew little about this area except that whenever the Farmville area came up as a topic of conversation, the following comment was always "Nice people," followed by nodding heads. The reputation is well-earned. These folks raise their children to be polite and hard-working.

The road we live on is about a mile long and has 6 farms on it. We all have power outages, loose livestock, broken equipment and many other types of emergencies. Even if you are independant by nature, it would be hard to live out here without the support of your neighbors and that changes your perspective a bit. Even though we don't see each other all that often, the sense of community is pretty strong. The area we came from was rural also, but it seemed to lack this element. There appears to be a line separating northern and southern VA that serves as a cultural divide. I won't swear that I know exactly where it is, but it seems to be somewhere around the James River. No offense to the Northern Virginians on this list- there are plenty of nice people up there, too.