Simon says have a great Tuesday, and he is full of himself today, loud and quite assertive. I’m going to Washington County Fair at l p.m. to speak in the Agway Building about a writer’s perspective on rural life, and I’m still mulling over what I wish to say. I’m not a fortune teller, and I don’t predict the future but rural life is changing, and quickly.  Around the world, bigger seems to need to get smaller, and while some mourn the decline of the west as the world’s ruling financial and political and military  power, I’m not so sure we’ve done all that great a job. Maybe it’s time to let somebody else do it, and we can focus on living peaceful, meaningful, simpler lives. Wendell Berry, one of my favorite writers, is angry about what he believes the urban industrial complex has done to farmers and rural life, but I am not angry, just fascinated by what I see.

Perhaps in the new world order small family farms will be valued again, considered economical again, have a market for their goods again on a smaller and more manageable scale. Then sons and daughters can stay on the farm, cows will get to go to pasture again, and we can buy food from our neighbors rather than driving to supermarkets to get our food from South America and Mexico. Economists and politicians seem to love the new global economy, but nobody who works for a living seems to like it much, especially all those people who  have lost their businesses and jobs to it, and can’t find new ones. Rural life has been taking a beating for years, shedding children, post offices, businesses, schools, libraries and work. Maybe this cycle is coming around, and new farms will crop up along with new farmers with new ideas. I love where I live, but I don’t really care to live in a museum. I prefer real places, with post offices,  full schools, and the right of individuals to live as they wish, and not have to shop or work at Wal-Mart.

I am not downbeat about this, and I don’t know what’s next. But these are some of the things I’m thinking about.

Meanwhile, Simon and I took a good long walk today and he only balked once or twice. I told him stories, read him one from “Platero and I” and I am loving my new role as a strange man walking around with a donkey. My editor and my agent came to see the farm, and I was very happy to have them here, and Simon and Izzy and Lenore and Rose all did their thing. Even Frieda was more or less gracious. Come and hear one of Simon’s great brays.