Simon Nikoghosyan likes to philosophize.

We met him on Paruyr Sevak Street in Dashtavan, walking towards the house. He immediately began to speak, quoting philosophers and writers, explaining the meaning of life, and explaining the harms of nature to man. His wife, Svetlana, was on their plot of land.

Svetlana says that they have been living together for forty years, but she has just started to understand her husband. Simon's mind wandered into space. As he talked, Svetlana was hunched over, picking greens.

Dashtavan is a town of some 1,900 in Armenia’s Ararat Province.