There are more than few master gardeners in the world. I am one of them.
There are many gardeners who have put in the hours of studying and service required to call themselves “master gardeners.”
In addition of completing almost 100 hours of initial class work, testing, and annual continuing education requirements, master gardeners must complete a specific number of hours of community service.
The requirements range from 30 hours per year to 60 hours per year. I currently have over 200 hours, and we are only in September…and I’m not sure why I have so many hours..
I suppose it comes from my inability to say “no.” In fact, many of my close friends and relatives have urged me to find and attend a 12-step group that can help me learn to say “no,” although I’m not sure that such a group exists.
Maybe it comes from some deep-seated urge to please others, or perhaps an obsession to be liked, or a hereto-unidentified chemical imbalance in my brain that makes me say “yes” when I really mean “no.”
I can’t say I’m alone in this. There are others who seem to get roped into the same things as I do.
What really galls me is that these others who also can’t say “no” pretend to enjoy their predicament, actually smiling and making jokes about the hundreds of hours of work they are racking up while their peers are at home watching a football game or playing bridge.
There must be something wrong with those people. At least I don’t have to pretend I like it, although I pretend to like it... out of compassion for those others.
