Push It Along
*taps the mic* “....“Check. Check. Check 1. Sibilance. Sibilance. Check. Check. Check 2. Sibilance. Sibilance.” I assume y'all can still hear me. Let me start by saying this. I didn’t realize it's been OVER two years since I told a D.O.P.E. story. Truth be told I had no idea what to say so I said nothing. That nothing was a small pebble. Then week by week it grew and grew and became a boulder. So as I sit here listening to the end of “Push It Along” I hear the words “I’m walking down a long windy road with my questers. In my way there’s a boulder. But you know what I had to do? I had to push it along..Push It Along…Keep It Rolling!” I am a huge “A Tribe Called Quest” fan! I could probably tell my life story using only their album & song titles and lyrics. For the last 30+ years they’ve been giving me great advice! So here I am sitting in front of my computer, with a blank screen/huge boulder in front of me. Let’s “Push It Along”
Way back in the mid 90’s there was a certain cable channel that had a certain late night show that no teenager should be watching. It was “real” alright, probably a little too “real” *hint hint*. So here we are one night. I was sitting on the floor as close to the television as I could get, with the volume super low. I kept my head on a swivel because if my mother caught me it would not have been good for me. The last thing I wanted was a letter from her saying “How disappointed she was in me, and other things…I say other things because I never ever finished reading her letters. I would read the first word which was always “Geoffrey”, then sit in my room for about 5 minutes(just enough time to make her “think” I was reading), then walk up to her with a sad look on my face to let her know how her words affected me. I digress,so there I am “living dangerously” when I hear something that changed my life. Now,the purpose of watching was NOT for inspirational and motivational quotes. But here I am 25+ years later still saying it(to myself) very often because it had a profound effect on me. In the midst of all the visuals I heard the phrase “The best-laid plans, don’t get you laid the way you planned.” Now, this is not a coming of age story about a boy discovering himself and becoming a man by sneaking and watching adult programming from his home box office *hint hint part II*. It’s a story about dedication and “Triumph”(I bomb atomically, Socrates' philosophies and hypotheses…..)
(So apparently a Scottish poet named Robert Burns had a G rated quote regarding “best laid plans”. Had I known that 5 minutes ago I would have skipped the previous paragraph…whoops. That’s a little embarrassing but whatever I’m going to roll with it!)
Our story begins on April 30th, 2016 with Beefsteak tomatoes, Bush Champion cucumbers,”green beans'',”watermelon”,Italian parsley(I have no recollection of that),dill,”basil”,cilantro,sage, and rosemary. 2 plants, and the rest were all seed packets.And what did I do with those seed packets? I emptied them… ALL OF THEM! I legit poured hundreds of seeds into a 4x4 raised bed, then I took a step back, nodded my head and said “I’m going to have thousands of pounds of food!” Now if I had a stainless steel car, powered by plutonium that I swindled from Libyan terrorists, and a device that requires 1.21 gigawatts of electrical power to get it moving and grooving at 88mph I would go back to April 30th, 2016 and slap myself and say “Hey read those things called words on the back of the seed packets!” “The best laid plans…”
Part II of our story begins on May 14th, 2016 with “sunflowers”,Brandywine tomatoes,Kentucky Wonder Garden Beans(what the hell are garden beans?),Green honeydew melon,orange honeydew melon,California Wonder bell peppers and another random tomato that I couldn't identify. Why is that? Because I emptied the seed packet AGAIN, and threw it away. But this time I got smarter! I used a muffin tin to make equal spaces for hundreds of seeds! Two 4x4 raised beds with an exorbitant amount of seeds in each of them. “The best laid plans…”
Part III of our story took place on June 16, 2016 with a handful(or less) of some type of green bean. I was so excited that I grew something from a seed. I couldn’t wait to see the rest of the fruits and vegetables sprout up. Well that didn’t happen. I had one small harvest and that was that. Was I discouraged? Nope! Because on October 1, 2016 I planted my fall seeds…ALL OF THEM…AGAIN! This time I got absolutely nothing! “The best laid plans…..”
“Your Purpose Existed Before Your Problems” I read this somewhere yesterday and it made me think. “Problems in life will do one of two things, both are based on your reactions. Would you rather your problems defeat you? Or would you rather your problems develop you? I spent hundreds of dollars on supplies. I spent countless hours cultivating what I thought would be an epic garden, and in return I got a handful of beans….sounds like a problem. “The best laid plans…”
I told myself “I will not be defeated.” I experimented. I made mistakes. I tried and I failed numerous times. I needed that failure. I needed that struggle. I needed those problems. I needed my “best laid plans….” to become a pebble that grew into a boulder. I needed that boulder in my way. And I needed to “Push It Along” because had I not,then I wouldn’t have partnered with “Gardening Know How” to create a free seed starting workshop available next week…..Surprise!
(This story was written as “People’s Instinctive Travels And The Paths Of Rhythm” by A Tribe Called Quest served as the background soundtrack. Released April 10th, 1990. R.I.P Phife Dawg)
