I can't help but think of Adam Smith's line in the theory of moral sentiments where he says, man naturally desires not only to be loved but to be lovely. He means being respected, being seen as someone significant, mattering a person to be honored. And outside that outside world that comes to the Lachteristic District and looks at him sees an uneducated man who has not really made anything of himself. But what you saw as a boy and what you write about beautifully in your books is you saw a wise man, also a virtuous man,. Not always a human being, of course, but a person who had a very strong code of how to treat animals, how to
James Rebanks's family has raised sheep in the same small English village for at least four centuries. There are records of people with his same last name going back a few hundred more. Even his sheep are rooted in place: their DNA is from Viking times. It's enough to make anyone feel insignificant--and according to Rebanks, that's a wonderful thing. Listen as the author of The Shepherd's Life speaks with EconTalk's Russ Roberts about the deep pleasures and humbling privilege of being a sheep farmer.