The Mining Thing - a disgruntled entry in Days of My Destiny

I really need to write about this. So with hot chocolate by my side, I am ready.

One of the things that I am really getting over is the whole Farmer vs. Miner thing. I am getting over the assumptions people make about us simply because we are in mining. I am sick of the subtle yet rude comments we get from people we have only just met. I am over the fact that this has to be a duality. I am over the fact that "Mining = Who We Are" to people. I am sick of people simply putting me into the "People Who Don't Care" basket. I am sick of the whining and carrying on they do with a smile on their face, telling us how much harder they have it.

The thing is, we are NOT your typical mining family. Your typical mining family has been in mining for a long time. Your typical mining family hops from mine to mine and shifts from town to town, chasing the better money. We don't do that, you know why? Because unlike many mining families, we know that there is so much more to life than MONEY. We know that money doesn't equate happiness. We know that happiness is a pre-requisite for everything else in life. We are NOT money chasers. There have been some pretty good financial opportunities come up for L while we've been here, and guess what, WE'VE REJECTED THEM. I completely, whole-heartedly and passionately REJECT that whole notion. I have NEVER agreed with chasing money for the sake of chasing money. My whole background is pretty poor financially speaking, but oh so rich everything else speaking. Comprende?

When you look at the facts, yes, we came here for better money. Our reason for better money? To finish paying off our mortgage a little sooner. Because we deserve that one thing in life. We are not here to get new cars every two years, or to buy a house wherever we feel like it, or to go on luxurious holidays whenever we feel like it. We are not here to shove it in your face that we are better than you, because we aren't. We aren't better than anyone.

And so what if we WERE here to do all those things? Is it really any of your business? No. I don't have to explain myself to you, just as you don't have to explain yourself to me. Nobody needs to justify who they are or what they do or why they do what they do - to anybody. Live and love, dudes!

It's in the little things. It comes unexpectedly.

"Us farmers watch the rain gauge a lot more carefully than you miners do." (ASSUMPTION: "You don't give a damn about the rain. You are self-centred." TRUTH: We pray for rain for you people. We celebrate and squeal when it rains. We are happy for you when it rains, and we are happy for your animals when it rains.)

"The locals don't get anything out of mining. The miner's wives do though, HE HE HE." (ASSUMPTION: "You are a rich little bratty snub. Who knows what you do with your husband's money." TRUTH: The mines have done a fair bit around here. They sponsor a lot of your events and help out with all the Lions Clubs they can. They try to liaise as best they can. On my own end of things, I am raising my children here, by myself, around crazy shift hours. I don't have family near me. I am involved in your community - much unlike most mining families, if you look around it's not that hard to tell I am different - I attend all your events, I attend your church, I am involved in a couple of committees, I help out where I can, I know a lot of the locals by name and ALWAYS greet you all by name and I ALWAYS have time for each and every one of you.)

A few other facts...

Farmers have it tough, yes. They have it tough when they are so dependent on the weather and they have to be on their best guard so the endless lack of rain does not get to them.

They also get a lot of benefits that nobody else gets. Do they deserve it? Absolutely. Do they whinge as if they get nothing? Absolutely. Do they earn about the same or sometimes more than miners? Some do. Do they get a weekly wage? No. Whose fault is that? Nobody's. IT'S JUST THE WAY IT IS.

Farmers work hard, I know that. They don't get a weekly income. They work hard and they never know just how much they'll get for all their hard work at the end of it. But they do get paid. They get paid a big lump sum at the end of the year, and it's up to them to manage that money. A lot of farmers have a "Farm Fund." The farm fund pays for their upgraded cars (they upgrade them fairly often around here, though I'm sure it's not without reason). The farm fund pays for their groceries. The farm fund pays for whatever it is they can get away with, and so when you look at the books, it looks like a lot of the income is going straight onto the farm and not at all on lifestyle. But it does. They get HUGE tax breaks - because they are farmers.

I don't have ANYTHING against farmers. But I AM getting tired of the way they think they can be subtly bitchy like that.

We were camping on the weekend with the local Relay For Life event. We set up our tent, like everybody else did. A farmer came up to L and said, "Gee that's a big tent, you must be doing alright."

Why the, "... you must be doing alright" at the end? Do you REALLY want us to tell you that ACTUALLY, we had that tent long before we ever had anything to do with mining? Do you really need to know that actually, L's parents and his sister and I all put money into this mid-range tent which I found on special, for his 30th?

Do you see us driving around in shiny brand new cars? L bought himself a ten year old ute, and we are happy with that.

Do we need to explain to you every detail of our financial lives? Would that make you happy? Or would you rather us respond differently? How about you say, "You must be doing alright," and we say, "Yeah we are, we're raking in all that cash, mining is the best thing we've ever done." Hmmmm? We DON'T say that, because we CARE. If you gave us half a chance and got to know us beyond the Mining label, you'd know that. But you don't, because you're too thick-headed and short-sighted to even try.

(Fact: Mining ISN'T the best thing we've ever done. The best thing we've ever done was book one of those cheap, surprise hotel packages just before we married. We were broke as anything, and when we showed up to the hotel, turned out it was a washed out, beat up place. The spa didn't work and the pool was dirty - think green water - and full of leaves. That was the best thing we've ever done. Mining? It's just another job, mate.)

When I lived in China, the people there constantly asked me how much money I made. I found it confronting and offensive at first, because in Australian culture, that is rude. It's rude to outright ask how much you make, or what you're doing with your money. It's rude to even insinuate that you are interested, for that matter. I had to learn that well, in China, things are different. But this isn't fucking China. It's the outskirts of the outback here. Aussies should know better.

The thing is, each and every person who says these kinds of things to us.... they don't realise that EVERYONE ELSE IS SAYING IT TOO. We hear this kind of crap on a CONSTANT basis. Sure, we're not ostracised or ridiculed or driven out of the community. Sure we've been "accepted" (because they don't really have a choice, and for that I do feel sorry for them). But I mean come on...........

Should I take you up north and show you our house? It's just as beat up as the one we're renting. Okay so it's not BEAT UP, but it's pretty old. It's not brand new. The paint is peeling on all sides of the house. The floorboards are not varnished, they are scratched instead. The stumps need replacing. THAT is the house we bought.

In the city, who you are and what you do just doesn't REALLY matter all that much. (Well I can't say that as certainty, because there are many anti-mining protests and movements happening, but you get the idea.) You can have purple hair and wear one shoe if you want, nobody's going to REALLY notice you. The city comes with a sense of ... detachment, almost, which has its own advantages and disadvantages.

Out here, people have heart. By that I mean, they help out strangers without skipping a beat. They share their knowledge without feeling superior. They share their knowledge full-stop. They welcome any help they can get, and they offer ALL the help they can. They go well and truly beyond any call of duty, anywhere they go. They ALWAYS have a laugh, no matter what the rain is doing. They ALWAYS say they're going great, with a big fat smile on their face, even though the pink elephant is the absence of rain.

But I mean seriously, if my husband wasn't a miner, then the whole "tent" remark, for example, wouldn't have been made. It would've been a simple, "Gee that's a big tent, mate, where'd you find that?" or anything similar to that innocent comment. But no, we are miners. We must be getting filthy rich and living the life without giving a damn about the people around us. All the friendships we are making are completely fake as we move around in this world, self-centred and unphased about anybody else.

I get over it.