Think Little

Now is as good a time as any to write. The snow is still falling, the wind is still, and I am at peace. I finished (a little while ago) an essay by WB. those of you who know me know I’m talking about Wendell Berry, the man, the myth, the legend. I tell you, this is the man who will lead nations--no, no. This is a humble man, and an ordinary man. He lives a life just like we do. The only difference is that he thinks really long and hard, and with those thoughts, he scrawls magic on the paper. I can imagine him saying, no no, It’s not magic. Once he asked, why should we even care for his writing? It is because his work is important. His thoughts lay a bedrock in a greater society, one where people care and are cared for, where the earth comes first, and is a teacher to us all. Lead by nature’s example, that seems to be one of his messages. And all of his messages of care and kindly nature of community revolve around one thing, agriculture. He lays it out, the good, the bad, the ugly, and explains why things are the way they are. It is almost biblical, his style, yet he always puts his own spin on it. I believe that Berry is America’s greatest living writer, and he has been called that alongside Kentucky Prophet. To follow in the footsteps of a living prophet--every day in the program (the WBFP) we work to learn about and carry out his work. To work to become good stewards and good neighbors. It fills me up with goodness, as if I am on a pilgrimage to see all land as holy once more. My Dean, Dr. Bayens, always quotes him, “there are no sacred and profane places, there are only sacred and desecrated places”. I aim to do my work, and work to see all land as holy again. I know, in my lifetime, it will not all be sacred again. I know probably never will it be. But I must continue to do my work for others, treat others as you’d be treated. 
With this mindset, I read the prophet, “Think Little” this time. Agriculture can be done basically two ways, and within those two ways, a billion ways--or seven billion, one for each person on the Earth. “intensive, organic agriculture kept the farms of the orient thriving for thousands of years where as extensive which is to say exploitive or extractive agriculture has critically reduced the fertility of American farmlands in a few centuries or even a few decades” (Berry, 25-26). We practice intensively, holistically. Another quote which stood out to me was this, “But to be fearful of the disease and yet unwilling to pay for the cure is not just hypocritical; it is to be doomed. If you talk a good line without being changed by what you say, then you are not just hypocritical and doomed you have become an agent of the disease” (Berry, 22-23). I aim to be an agent of change, not the disease, the disease of greed, the disease of the Objective. Now, don’t get me wrong, I like to get things done, just in the right way--the way that’s right for me, my work, and the earth and the Earth. I always say that, the earth and the Earth, because there’s a difference, and I don’t think a lot of people see it anymore. The earth is the soil, the living breathing part of the planet-- and the Earth is the planet and everyone on it including the soil. Why do I talk like the soil is a being? Well, technically speaking, it is billions of beings, a whole microcosm. Perhaps even trillions of beings, I think to myself and to you, dear reader. 
Persie is running around being a sweet little derelict. I think she’d make a good mouser, that is, if she ever saw a mouse. Persie is my pet, not my partner. I mean, sure, she could be my partner in crime, but not in farming, ha ha ha! Sweet little miss is a real princess diva, not the kind to work on the farm. But when I get my farm, she’ll definitely come with. She just won’t do work. Persie is like my therapy cat. She comes, she sits on me, then she plays. Not much more. Real mousers are kind of wild. But I digress. 
When I move to the farm, all will not be perfect. It will be be with hard work and love that I make the farm a home and a living breathing partner for myself. Stay tuned though, this journey will go on and I’ll try to stay with y’all along the way!

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