This is, of course, the slowest time of year for money-making here in Bayfield (as I wrote in my previous blog entry). Consequently it's prime time for me to indulge my passion for books and movies. Last week I came home from the library carrying an armful of DVDs and books. A few nights ago Frances and I watched "Ray," the movie about Ray Charles and his musical career. Fabulous! I watched a few of the "extras" last night as I'm yet unable to move beyond the impassioned music or the incredible performance by Jamie Foxx.
I already returned one book to the library because I knew that I wouldn't have time prior to Christmas to dedicate myself to a full, subterranean entrance into its fictional world. It's Barbara Kingsolver's new novel, The Lacuna, which is her first work of fiction in nine years. I read The Poisonwood Bible last winter and loved it. I'll revisit Lacuna later.
The other books I selected last week were, shall I say, eclectic? I quickly grabbed display titles that appealed to me: Anger: Wisdom for Cooling the Flames by Thich Nhat Hanh, Philosophy for Dummies by Tom Morris, Ph.D. (my sister's boyfriend previously taught philosophy), and Deeply Rooted: Unconventional Farmers in the Age of Agribusiness by Lisa Hamilton.
When I read Hamilton's introduction to Deeply Rooted last night, I was hooked. I grew up on a farm, the same farm where my dad was raised. Hamilton ends her introduction with a description of conversations she's had with farmers:
As we sit and talk, the topics are sometimes technical, often political or economic, and always, ultimately, philosophical. And personal. If we start with a discussion of soil microbiology or a comparison of turkey breeds, inevitably we end up in family, history, ecology, faith, beauty, morality, and the fate of the world to come. For them, all those things are linked.Yes. Aren't they linked for everyone? It's at times like this that I realize how much I am a product of my upbringing. How deeply rooted I am to the land and a way of life that seems to be rapidly fading. Or is it? As Hamilton also writes:
As they [farmers] see it, agriculture is not an industry on the periphery of modern civilzation. It is a fundamental act that determines whether we as a society will live or die. What binds these people is not a particular farming method, but rather the conviction that as humans, the contributions they make are essential.It's likely that Deeply Rooted will accompany me to Baltimore. I'm traveling there with the brother who lives on our family farm. And I have no doubt that we'll talk about, among other things, our Christmas meal, relatives, and "ecology, faith, beauty, morality, and the fate of the world to come." For--to us--it IS all linked.
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