The popularity of Chris Soules, the Iowan farmer featured on ABC’s The Bachelor last season, has earned him an extension on his 15 minutes of fame. As I write, he has survived to week five on Dancing with the Stars.

I have dedicated this space for this issue to thank Progressive Dairyman’s longest-running columnist for his years of dedication and contributions to the magazine. Mike Gangwer, the author of “The View from Here,” retired earlier this year. His final regular column appears here.

The extent of our lives can be told in stories. The art of composing the story, as essay or poem or detailed biography, are together the composition of a life. The stories of loss and then redemption, the essays of cognition and then art, the poems of metaphors and then enlightenment, and the biographies of chronology and then honest reflection, are together the validation and acknowledgment of a life lived and given.

Last month I shared an article I had written several years ago. The crux of the article was taken from the words of Jeremiah, an Old Testament prophet, who spoke of broken cisterns.In the early days, a cistern was a place capturing and storing rainwater.

In our old stanchion barn there was a large fan built into the wall. The blades turned quickly and the image of the calf hutches outside flickered in front of you. One of the first lessons I remember as a child was being told not to stick my hand in it.

Right now there is a big push for farmers and ranchers to join the online conversations. We are supposed to “tell our story.” It’s blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. We are supposed to get out there and build an online community competing with Dr. Oz, Food Babe and other celebrities.

People, we need to talk. Now, I don’t want to be controversial or start any protests; however, I feel we need to, as a farming society, talk about this. Out there, there is an entire class of people being misunderstood and picked on because their culture is different.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in April 2005. The author has updated it and written a sequel, which will appear in the next issue.

Hollywood is a $500 billion industry that, among other things, makes a profit from combining two seemingly un-joinable things: Cowboys and Aliens. Sharknado. Beverly Hills Cop. Part of my academic research is considering farming narratives in their various forms. This led me to another odd couple: agriculture and space.