This is an amazing story, full of drama and heartache and all the joys that come to us in life. It was not written to be entertaining or glorifying. It was simply but beautifully written to capture the mundane daily life that we all face and in the daily struggles the sorrows and joys that find their way to us as well.
The farmer starts his life with only a small portion of land, hardly enough to feed himself and aging father. He takes a wife who works in silence and loyalty by his side and the earth feeds them but starves them as well. Over time the wife provides three sons and two daughters to her husband and still works by his side, and leaves the land with him when famine strikes. Yet this farmer yearns for his land and finds his way back, always thinking of the future and prosperity. He is frugal and invests every extra piece of silver into more land, he buys land from the rich family that lives in the big house in town. They are selling their land as they spend their wealth carelessly and need to fund their opium habit and rich blood. He buys enough land that he must hire laborers to cultivate the fields and finally, when they’ve outgrown their home and they’ve become wealthy enough to survive any famine or flood, the family moves to town. They rent their land to other farmers and gather their share of the harvest and the profits and live in the big house in town. The rich family has all moved away and the farmer now rents the home, filling the rooms with his children, grandchildren, and servants. Through everything he seeks peace in his home, he finds wives for his sons and servants to care for them. And though he fixes the problems as they come along, still he cannot find peace as he is plagued by more unrest within his household.
Through his entire life the farmer hungers for his land, plans his sons’ futures to reap the rich harvests from the land and to bring them prosperity and peace. And yet, his sons are of another mind, they have their own plans and dreams, they do not understand their father’s desperate need to cling to every bit of earth that he owns. He urges them to never sell the land, to hold it and ensure their own prosperity but they do not understand the ranting of the old man. In his last days they make their plans to sell the land and divide the money. They do not see their folly, nor realize they are following the same crooked road of the family that lived in the big house before. They do not understand the hardships that the farmer endured to build the prosperity of his family, and they do not realize his sacrifices to give to them what they now spend so freely.
He planned their lives for them but they rejected his plans. He purchased and held the land for them and all they could think of was to sell it. He planned these things to provide the best lives possible for his children and grandchildren and they could not recognize his wisdom and intentions. This is the tragedy that families face, the parents' intentions to guide their children into a better life clash with the children’s will to follow their own paths, and seek a better life in their own way.
What are my intentions for my children? Will they follow or will they go their own way? Will they see the lessons I've learned from the struggles I've experienced, or will they view it at rantings of their old mom, out of touch? Generation after generation we move forward but backward also. Where will we end up?
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