WENDELL BERRY, A MOST QUOTABLE MAN

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"I think often now of that old economy, which was essentially the same from a farm household that was fairly well-to-do...to the household...which would be classified as poor. For many years now that way of living has been scorned...It was an economy directly founded on the land, on the power of the sun, on thrift and skill, and on the people's competence to take care of themselves...Now that we have come to the end of the era of cheap petroleum, which fostered so great a forgetfulness, I see that we could have continued that thrifty old life fairly comfortably -- could even have improved it. Now we will have to return to it, or to a life necessarily as careful, and we will do so only uncomfortably and with much distress." ~ from Andy Catlett: Early Travels, by Wendell Berry

Wendell Berry is an American poet, novelist, essayist, philosopher and farmer. Not a bad resume, eh? I've been stumbling across quotes of his right and left lately, and was amazed at how hip and current he was, for a 76 yr. old. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that most of these quotes were from books and poems he wrote years ago! Too bad more people didn't pay attention back then. Might've saved ourselves a world-full o' woe. I was so impressed by all of theese quotes that I finally went to the library to see if they had any of his books. The one I found was Andy Catlett, quoted above, which had much to do with the sense of place -- a topic dear to my heart. "Turning into that gate was not, for me, merely the entrance into a place. I was also entering my sense, almost my memory, of my father's childhood...of Grandpa's childhood...Before that I had a memory, dark and indistinct, only a feeling really, of the Civil War and some soldiers coming in the night to take away my great-grandfather..."

If you are unfamiliar with Berry and his writings, here is what Wikipedia has to say about his ideas regarding "the good life":

"His nonfiction serves as an extended conversation about the life he values. According to Berry, the good life includes sustainable agriculture, appropriate technologies, healthy rural communities, connection to place, the pleasures of good food, husbandry, good work, local economics, the miracle of life, fidelity, frugality, reverence, and the interconnectedness of life. The threats Berry finds to this good life include: industrial farming and the industrialization of life, ignorance, hubris, greed, violence against others and against the natural world, the eroding topsoil in the United States, global economics, and environmental destruction. As a prominent defender of agrarian values, Berry's appreciation for traditional farming techniques, such as those of the Amish, grew in the 1970s, due in part to exchanges with Draft Horse Journal publisher Maurice Telleen. Berry has long been friendly to and supportive of Wes Jackson, believing that Jackson's agricultural research at The Land Institute lives out the promise of "solving for pattern" and using "nature as model."

The concept of "Solving for pattern", coined by Berry in his essay^[10] of the same title, is the process of finding solutions that solve multiple problems, while minimizing the creation of new problems. The essay was originally published in the Rodale Press periodical The New Farm. Though Mr. Berry's use of the phrase was in direct reference to agriculture, it has since come to enjoy broader use throughout the design community.^[11][12]"

Do yourself a favor, and see what your library has to offer by this man. You won't regret it.

P.S. Many thanks to journeysomething.wordpress.com for the above image. Painting by Robert Shetterly.