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Wisdom from the sage
Wendell Berry:
"We have lived our lives by the assumption that what was good for us would be good for the world. We have been wrong. We must change our lives so that it will be possible to live by the contrary assumption, that what is good for the world will be good for us. And that requires that we make the effort to know the world and learn what is good for it."
--from an essay in "The Long-Legged House""The word agriculture, after all, does not mean "agriscience," much less "agribusiness." It means "cultivation of land." And cultivation is at the root of the sense both of culture and of cult. The ideas of tillage and worship are thus joined in culture. And these words all come from an Indo-European root meaning both "to revolve" and "to dwell." To live, to survive on the earth, to care for the soil, and to worship, all are bound at the root to the idea of a cycle. It is only by understanding the cultural complexity and largeness of the concept of agriculture that we can see the threatening diminishments implied by the term "agribusiness."
"Odd as I am sure it will appear to some, I can think of no better form of personal involvement in the cure of the environment than that of gardening. A person who is growing a garden, if he is growing it organically, is improving a piece of the world. He is producing something to eat, which makes him somewhat independent of the grocery business, but he is also enlarging, for himself, the meaning of food and the pleasure of eating."
--both the above are from essays in "The Art of the Commonplace: Agrarian Essays"Is this so hard to believe?
"An atheist is just somebody who feels about Yahweh the way any decent Christian feels about Thor, or Ba'al, or The Golden Calf. As has been said before, we are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further," Richard Dawkins, 2002.
The archives! Plenty of opining since 2006.
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Spring? What spring?
Somehow, I think I picked the wrong weekend to plant the potatoes and peas. What do you think?
I think it’s okay to be snowbound, though, on a three-day weekend. It was still so cold outside that there’d have been no way I could’ve planted anything, unless I got out my pick. Those poor chickens, though. I opened the coop door (after shoveling a path to it, again) and they all made that angry chicken noise that, should I be so bold to interpret, means “you have GOT to be kidding me.”
You’ve got to be kidding me. Just a few hours south of you… well never mind, I’m sure you don’t want to hear about how I’ve planted my peas…
Over here in Oregon, we woke up to giant snowflakes yesterday. And below freezing temps this morning. Highly unusual for end of March here in the Pacific Northwest.
In other news, the peas my parents planted 3 weeks ago, rotted in the ground from the torrential downpours we’ve had lately. sheesh!
did you happen to see my floating head on one of your chickens? because that is EXACTLY what I was saying yesterday too. :O
ugh. No, doesn’t look like a good planting day.
I remember when I was growing year it snowed on year on my birthday – in May!
Carol! What a way to rub it in! 🙂
Farmgirl, yep; it seems a slow slosh to spring all around this country, doesn’t it?
Gigi: Hwah~! By the way, they’re still pissed off today 😦
Hayden, I couldn’t believe all the snow myself. Luckily, the sun is mighty hot at this time of year, even if the air is not. It’ll be gone soon. But boy I hope we don’t see it again in May!