A good friend of mine asked me to join her for a protest. I felt terrible declining her, but as I contemplated why I said no, I remembered a phrase I read a little while ago.
When Voltaire wrote one of the world’s most famous phrases, “cultivate your own garden,” he didn’t mean grow your own tomatoes, although he got the inspiration from a gardner. Instead, there is a story behind what he meant.
Voltaire was 18th-century French writer and philosopher. The phrase appeared at the end of his legendary novel Candide written in just three very inspired days in 1759.
In the story, the hero Candide and his companions have traveled the world and suffered immensely. They have known persecution, shipwrecks, rapes, earthquakes, smallpox, starvation, and torture, but they have more or less survived. In the final pages, they find themselves in Turkey, living on a small farm in a suburb of Istanbul.
One day, they learn of trouble in the Ottoman court. Two wazirs (ministers) and the Mufti have been strangled and several of their associates impaled. The news causes upset and fears in many. Candide, together with his friends, goes the court to find the truth. On the way, they pass an old man who is peacefully and indifferently sitting under an orange tree next to his house. Candide’s friend asks the old man what the name of a strangled Mufti was. “I don't know,” answers the man. “Neither do I know the names of any Mufti who preceded him.” The old man explains that he never bothers with what’s going on in Constantinople. “My view is that people who meddle with politics usually meet a miserable end, and indeed, they probably deserve to.”
“I only worry about sending the fruits from my garden to the court.” Then the old man invites the strangers into his house. His two sons and two daughters present them with several sherberts, which they've made themselves with oranges, lemons, pineapples, pistachio, and coffee beans which they grow in their garden. “You must have a vast and magnificent estate,” said Candide to the Turk. “Oh, no, I've only got 20 acres,” replied the old man, “I and my children cultivate them. And our labor preserves us from three great evils - weariness vise, and want.”
On his way back home, Candide reflects deeply on what the old man said. “This honest Turk,” he said to his friends, “seems to be in a far better place than the kings. We must cultivate our own garden.”
We must cultivate our own garden, is arguably the most important adage in modern philosophy. It has been translated into - we must grow our vegetables, or we must tend to our lands, or we need to work our fields but what Voltaire really meant with his gardening advice was that we must keep a reasonable distance between ourselves and the world.
Because by taking too close an interest in politics or public opinion, or what people are talking about, we are on a fast route to aggravation, danger, and mental unwellness.
We should know enough by this point in the history of mankind that humans are just troublesome and will never achieve a state where logic and goodness and kindness prevails.
We should not tie our personal moods to the condition of a whole nation, or people in general. Otherwise, we'll be set to be in a state of distress all the time. We need to live in our own small plots, not in the heads of strangers.
To be able to do that, we need to keep ourselves busy. We need a project. It shouldn’t be too large a project or dependent on too many people. The project should send us to sleep every night, weary but satisfied. It could be bringing up a child, writing a book, looking after a house, running a small shop, or managing a little business.
Or, of course, like the Turk tending to a few acres, we should give up on trying to cultivate the whole of humanity. We should give up on things on a national or international scale. Take just a few acres and make them your focus. Stop worrying about humanity if you ever want peace of mind again. Who cares what’s happening in Constantinople? Or what’s up with the next Grand Mufti? Live quietly like the old Turk, enjoying the sunshine in the orange flower next to your house?
Voltaire’s ever-relevant horticultural quietism is as relevant today as it was 270 years ago.
“Gardening is no trivial pastime; it’s a central way of shielding ourselves from the influence of the chaotic, dangerous world beyond while focusing our energies on something that can reflect the goodness and grace we long for.”
Where my friend is already an accomplished gardener I am cultivating my garden of ‘words.’ When I die, I want to leave behind a few stories, a few thoughts, and maybe an adage like, ‘cultivate your own garden,’ to sum up my life’s learnings.
What are you growing in your garden?
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That’s it from me this week.
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Take care.
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I totally agree with you Neera . Cultivate your own garden. She is cultivating hers. We all have personal goals. What is hers maybe not yours .Looking forward to the book. I guess your picture will be in it ?