Winston Churchill implored people never to give in!

If you do enough lookin’, you will find that apparently, all the important decisions about everything, are made by Townies, in town. Now, just maybe, some of the decision-makers are Rurals ‘at heart’ and they want the best for country folk too. Mainly, because Rurals, provide most of the nation’s earnings…

Hopefully, we can count on the ‘hybrids’ who are Lifestyle Blockarians. Nobody actually knows where all the loyalties lie. Loyalties die early in ‘troubled times’. It’s no comfort knowing that just waking up every morning, is a ‘troubled time’. Like, getting to the bathroom first, before the hordes queue up.

Loyalty is a strange phenomenon. It is powerful… yet fickle. It is a bond, but often only held together with Sellotape (see www.sellotape.co.nz ). Loyalty is sort of ‘dependable’, but usually, only in ‘good times’.

The other problem is this. People tend to cancel loyalties in ‘troubled times’ on the premise that, if the good times do return, they can say that it was just a ‘loyalty postponement’ due to serious, unforeseen circumstances. Yeah right!

That’s why the brief message ‘for betterer or for worser’ was snuck into wedding vows, because empirical evidence (I use this cos it sounds so important…), confirms that a few things may happen any time after the last dance, that may not be spiffy. He could put on weight, or, Heaven forbid, snore!

But, loyalty has a core base, called, ‘Values’. Yes, I know we don’t talk about them much anymore. That is, because we now have YouTube, you see. However, those of us who believe in values, know that they worked then, work now and will always work in the future. Yip.

So, why am I discussing ‘values’ in Rural Living? OK. Lean closer. I’m going to whisper the next bit. Well, we don’t want Townies to listen in here, right? After all… what do they read? Computers! Exactly.

I’m telling you this, because ‘Values’ were created in the Country… and cancelled in Town.

It started when ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ changed to, ‘it depends on your viewpoint’. It’s a lot like keeping the traffic light permanently on orange and let you decide the next move. Duh! The values that did so well for us in past times, in our very own Newzild, came from the Land.

Values like… work hard; get up early; perform your duties (responsibilities, even…); respect your elders (Who?); respect nature; help each other for the common good (Really?); do it properly the first time (cows love that…) and Family is everything.

Like… challenge yourself physically; community is power; love your country; play hard; frugality (What!); mostly pay in cash (I say, what!); excellence; helping society; honesty; leadership; meaningful work; order and authority… for starters. The list is long cos Human Beans have been here a long time.

We used to go to church on Sundays. God is optional now, you see, because the whole Galaxy thing was created by oh, probably the Vulcans, who first ‘landed’ on ‘Star Trek’. People believe everything they see on a screen these days. Sad…

Hold these Values, Rurals. Reality is coming back… slowly.

You’re terrific, and that’s all that matters! As Winston Churchill aptly growled, ‘Never, never, never, give in! Today is a great day cos you’re in it!