Farm to Family Connection - Commentary

FARM TO FAMILY COMMENTARY ---Select commentary from a weekly column by Curt Arens published in the Cedar County News, Hartington, NE

July 2009

If at First You Don’t Succeed

Dear Friends,
It has been said that those who succeed just don’t know when to quit. If you never give up the battle, then you never lose it. So, if that is true, perseverance, determination and plain stubbornness pay off in a big way. I’ve been telling my wife for years that my stubbornness is a good thing, but she just doesn’t seem to see it that way.

It is usually better to always keep trying and working toward a goal. I can recall as a kid, trying to get a specific cow into the yard and the barn for a shot or to move to pasture, and invariably the cow would make a fool out of us, busting through panels, rushing past us and chasing around us in circles.

Out of breath and patience, Dad would usually call for a break. Maybe we would go to the house and have a lunch, allowing the cow to calm down and for us to cool off. Then he would say, "Let’s try it one more time." Without fail, we were able to reach our goal and corral the unruly beast.

Working with livestock, loading hogs, sorting calves, moving cattle to pasture, require an enormous amount of finesse and patience. But it seems that just when we are ready to give up, if we can muster enough energy to try one last time, things will tip our way.

The same could be said for an old bearing on the combine, a bolt that is seized up and won’t budge, or a mechanical problem that we can’t identify. We can try and try and try, for what seems an eternity, to fix the problem, with no results, except skinned up hands and high blood pressure. But one last try, one last close look, can sometimes identify an easier fix or a problem that seemed impossible to solve.

Certainly, the world is filled with people who just wouldn’t quit on their dreams. Of course, a goal should be achievable and believable. If my goal were to be the first person to land on the planet Saturn, for instance, I think it would be best to shoot a bit lower.

But, as we keep trying, if we are smart, we learn a little bit more from each failure. Look at the Wright Brothers when they accomplished the first flight. They had failed so many times before, but each time they learned from the failure, fine-tuned their drawings and their designs, until they came up with a flying machine that would actually fly. Maybe failure, in that case, was a gift. It provided a way to learn something, and it provided a stepping stone to use on the way to the finish line.

In that way, farming provides us with an important lesson in life. Unfortunately, I’ve been guilty many times, of throwing in the towel and giving in too quickly. I give up on the bearing, or decide to just let that crazy hog home this time, or that cow free to roam the yard for a few more days. It has often been my parents who have said in life, "Just give it one more try."

Now, when my children become frustrated with softball, or math, or a 4-H project that doesn’t come together like they think it should, I have tried to be that little voice that says, "Keep trying. Things will work out."

But if I try to be that voice, then I also have to take on the responsibility of setting an example with my actions when things don’t go perfectly in my life. I have to be patient, determined, and quietly stubborn. Words are easy. Living by them is the hard part. Well, except for the stubbornness. I come by that naturally. Just ask my wife.