Purpose and Hydroponics

A friend recently went on and on about his hydroponics project. I could care less about hydroponics, probably because plants die in my care. But I care about my friend.

This friend wonders about what real purpose he has, so I decided to use his hydroponics project to explore the purposes behind it. I asked him “How does your hydroponics project benefit someone other than yourself?” Wouldn’t you know his family is just crazy about eating salad.

Then I ask “How does your hydroponics project connect you to people beyond your family?“ Turns out members of his extended family have hydroponics gardens too, and they all have their own ways of doing it. I can just imagine the lot of them going out for beers after a long day at a hydroponics conference, but I didn’t ask.

I don’t know how my friend would explain the satisfying purposes of the hydroponics project, but I see that it took him from being a consumer to being a consumer plus a producer plus a member of a community. Isn’t this one of the moves that successful people make over and over again after they pass through childhood?

Children have to start out with everything provided for them. As they grow, they start doing things that could also benefit others. Then they become really good at an activity and end up collaborating, cooperating, and competing among their society’s most excellent…hydroponists? Is that a word? Well you get the idea.