big sky country

Gold and white hills ebb off to the horizon, drying grass dusted with snow. Another farmhouse specks the landscape near the horizon. Removed from the convenient distractions of my techno-urban life it is too easy and cliché to fall into the seductive notion of the better, simpler life of rural America. And while I’ve done little but read and relax, the lives of the ranchers here is anything but easy, and far from simple. Of course to write of the hardship of farm life is just as cliché, but one more honest.
As I stare out the window over morning coffee, a rancher deftly grabs bales of hay with his tractor, dumping them into a bin that chops and mixes his cows’ lunch. He does this with the effortlessness of years of repetition on mornings just as this.
For me the hardship is not one of labor, but of the absence of technology. Just two days without Internet access leaves me struggling with my phone to connect however briefly to a world I have not left in years. Despite having no obligations, being so cut off is difficult, oddly stressful and I’m eager for the train ride home where I can again gorge myself on information.
So while some dream wistfully of a life, of a place without the technology and connectivity of modern life, I will return home more astonished by the marvel of progress, and grateful for its abundance and ubiquity in my life.