The Explorer and the Farmer

Last month, we held the first ever Riskology.co meet up here in Portland, Oregon. A lot of riskologists came out and we had some good beer and great conversations.

Thanks to everyone who attended. We’ll do it again soon.

One conversation that stuck with me was about the sharp divide there seems to be in our community between praising the risk-takers of the world and demonizing the risk avoiders.

Every movement needs it’s villain, but I think we all agreed on a really important point – the world takes both types to function. Somebody (I wish I could remember who – feel free to let me know in the comments if it was you) made the analogy to the explorer and the farmer.

 

The Explorer

Here at AR, we’re all about the explorer. We’re intrepid souls, always in search of a new adventure. We shun the comforts of home and routine, setting off to find new places, new experiences, and new ways of life.

We wander so that we may understand more of the world, but we also need some help. We need food, and we need technology. We need maps and guides to direct us on our journeys. These are things we can’t produce ourselves when we’re constantly on the move, exploring the reaches of the world so that we can report back to everyone what it’s like and bring home ideas for new ways of life.

The Farmer

The farmer stays at home, refining his craft. He’s the mechanic, the politician, and the cultivator who butters his bread by sustaining the civilizations we build.

He keeps his people fed, fixes their broken wares, and maintains order among the masses. But competition is fierce, so he needs help finding new ideas to improve his work to stay on top. He looks to other cultures and to the explorers that understand them for new ideas that he can turn into sustainable systems.

The Intersection

The explorer creates, and the farmer sustains. Most importantly, the world requires both. They are not mortal enemies but, instead, symbiotic partners.

When I sit down to dinner, I don’t want to eat the latest thing the explorer found in the jungle, completely unaware of whether or not it could kill me. I want to eat it after the scientist has examined it and declared it isn’t poisonous. When I learn about the world, I don’t want to talk to the farmer that’s never left his own township. I want to hear from the explorer that’s seen the wonders of the globe with her own two eyes.

More than all this, I want to be, myself, both the farmer and the explorer. I want to take risks, see new things, and explore the world upon my own two feet, but I also want to take those experiences and synthesize them into a way of life that improves the world and is useful for everyone, not just myself.

The farmer depends on the explorer. The explorer depends on the farmer. We can debate who’s more important, but I don’t think it’s a useful argument because, really, we ought to strive to be both the farmer and the explorer in our own lives.

When you plow your field, wear your explorer’s cap. When you plot the wilderness, bring your pitchfork.

So how about you over there? How are you exploring and farming in your own life?

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Image by: Jeremy M Farmer