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“But while presidents and popes came and went, while wars exploded and came to an end, while some lost their jobs only later to have their talents recognized, while children grew sickly and later became sports heroes, while all this and more transpired, something was being formed that neither death nor illness could destroy. For those who have eyes to see and ears to hear, much in our fleeting lives is not passing but lasting, not dying but coming to life, not temporary but eternal. Amid the fragility of our lives, we have wonderful reason to hope. Some call this hidden reality “grace,” others “God’s life in us,” others still “the kingdom of God among us.”
― Turn My Mourning into Dancing: Finding Hope in Hard Times
― Turn My Mourning into Dancing: Finding Hope in Hard Times
“We have been winning, to our inestimable loss, a competition against our own land and our own people.”
― Bringing it to the Table: Writings on Farming and Food
― Bringing it to the Table: Writings on Farming and Food
“The logic of Fordism gained the upper hand, and by the 1970s, Nixon’s Secretary of Agriculture, Earl Butz, a brilliant but benighted agronomist from Purdue University, was announcing to American farmers the new national policy, “Get big or get out.”10”
― The Permaculture Handbook: Garden Farming for Town and Country
― The Permaculture Handbook: Garden Farming for Town and Country
“we see the eternal through the particular; only by entering fully into our particular place can we participate in the Great Economy of God.”
― Preaching in Place: Wendell Berry and the Agrarian Sermon
― Preaching in Place: Wendell Berry and the Agrarian Sermon
“Here is the node, you who hate change and fear revolution. Keep these two
squatting men apart; make them hate, fear, suspect each other. Here is the anlage of the
thing you fear. This is the zygote. For here "I lost my land" is changed; a cell is split
and from its splitting grows the thing you hate—"We lost our land." The danger is
here, for two men are not as lonely and perplexed as one. And from this first "we"
there grows a still more dangerous thing: "I have a little food" plus "I have none." If
from this problem the sum is "We have a little food," the thing is on its way, the
movement has direction. Only a little multiplication now, and this land, this tractor are
ours. The two men squatting in a ditch, the little fire, the side-meat stewing in a single
pot, the silent, stone-eyed women; behind, the children listening with their souls to
words their minds do not understand. The night draws down. The baby has a cold.
Here, take this blanket. It's wool. It was my mother's blanket—take it for the baby.
This is the thing to bomb. This is the beginning—from "I" to "we."
If you who own the things people must have could understand this, you might
preserve yourself. If you could separate causes from results, if you could know that
Paine, Marx, Jefferson, Lenin, were results, not causes, you might survive. But that
you cannot know. For the quality of owning freezes you forever into "I," and cuts you
off forever from the "we."
The Western States are nervous under the beginning change. Need is the stimulus to
concept, concept to action. A half-million people moving over the country; a million
more, restive to move; ten million more feeling the first nervousness.
And tractors turning the multiple furrows in the vacant land.”
― The Grapes of Wrath
squatting men apart; make them hate, fear, suspect each other. Here is the anlage of the
thing you fear. This is the zygote. For here "I lost my land" is changed; a cell is split
and from its splitting grows the thing you hate—"We lost our land." The danger is
here, for two men are not as lonely and perplexed as one. And from this first "we"
there grows a still more dangerous thing: "I have a little food" plus "I have none." If
from this problem the sum is "We have a little food," the thing is on its way, the
movement has direction. Only a little multiplication now, and this land, this tractor are
ours. The two men squatting in a ditch, the little fire, the side-meat stewing in a single
pot, the silent, stone-eyed women; behind, the children listening with their souls to
words their minds do not understand. The night draws down. The baby has a cold.
Here, take this blanket. It's wool. It was my mother's blanket—take it for the baby.
This is the thing to bomb. This is the beginning—from "I" to "we."
If you who own the things people must have could understand this, you might
preserve yourself. If you could separate causes from results, if you could know that
Paine, Marx, Jefferson, Lenin, were results, not causes, you might survive. But that
you cannot know. For the quality of owning freezes you forever into "I," and cuts you
off forever from the "we."
The Western States are nervous under the beginning change. Need is the stimulus to
concept, concept to action. A half-million people moving over the country; a million
more, restive to move; ten million more feeling the first nervousness.
And tractors turning the multiple furrows in the vacant land.”
― The Grapes of Wrath
Andrew’s 2024 Year in Books
Take a look at Andrew’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
1,727 books
|
12 friends
546 books
|
24 friends
311 books
|
32 friends
0 books
|
3 friends
124 books
|
17 friends
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