Week of 1/26 - Perspective matters

Talking about the Ode to Tropical Agriculture this week, I thought it was interesting how different of perspectives two people can have on the same issue. This is perfectly exemplified in Andrés Bello, who (as it seems) loved farming and could see nothing good about city life. There are many other people, however, who would argue the exact opposite. Such people may say that industrialization has helped our world live more efficiently, and that agriculture would not be profitable without industrial workers. In reality, the truth is somewhere in the middle, as there are positive characteristics of both lifestyles. But all this goes to show that different people see the good side of different things, and this teaches us to make the best of whatever situation we are in. Just like Andrés Bello made farming (which is often tedious) sound like everyone's dream job, we can make even a bad situation seem tolerable - it just might take a healthy dose of Bello's enthusiasm.

Comments

  1. Médar SerrataFebruary 15, 2022 at 5:43 PM

    Thank you, Seth, for your post. I like how look at the bright side in Bello's poem. I tend to focus not so much on his condemnation of city life but on the violence of his language when he describes the destruction of nature as something that needs to be done to make room for agriculture. However, as you point out, perhaps Bello was only trying to make the best of the situation.

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