Great read James, I hadn't thought of the theme of Contrariness in Mr Berry's work before. The will and ability to be Contrary does seem to come most easily with age. So, the question I have is: to what extent does a man or woman have to earn the right to be contrary?
I've been a mad farmer myself, harnessing teams of heavy horses to do the work and indeed laughing at funerals (a celebration of life) and frowning at weddings which most of the time turn out to be a less genuine pact than the one represented by a funeral. Of course, stepping back from things, the mad farmer is just another person voicing a lament that their time has come and gone, not so much through mismanagement (though there's been plenty) nor malicious intent but rather simply as a byproduct of our trajectory. Not 'progress' mind-you, but our trajectory, as a civilzation. Birth-growth-maturity-decline-death. An unopposable process, i now realize. We don't have to like it, but we do have to accept it to navigate it successfully. The fact that we are not going to alter this process through any act of civic will. Our relationship with the land, should any of us survive this round of a civilization's death which promises to be the most spectacular ever, will return to balance because and when there is no other option, but it will take the collapse of this model to sweep the field of options. We will be farming with our own backs, behind an ox or mule or horse once again, or not at all. I have a full catalogue of Wendell's books, love 'em. I now see them for what they are whether many realized this or not - as requiems to a dead model that was just one more casualty of our inevitable decline and fall rather than as calls to action. A person can act out the elements of that vanished time, as i did for years. It has no effect on where we're headed. A person must simply accept this. Acceptance comes with a full vital workload too.
Great read James, I hadn't thought of the theme of Contrariness in Mr Berry's work before. The will and ability to be Contrary does seem to come most easily with age. So, the question I have is: to what extent does a man or woman have to earn the right to be contrary?
What a pleasure to read, James. Sometimes you've got to get a little mad.
A warm welcome to the Mad Farmer Liberation Front.
I've been a mad farmer myself, harnessing teams of heavy horses to do the work and indeed laughing at funerals (a celebration of life) and frowning at weddings which most of the time turn out to be a less genuine pact than the one represented by a funeral. Of course, stepping back from things, the mad farmer is just another person voicing a lament that their time has come and gone, not so much through mismanagement (though there's been plenty) nor malicious intent but rather simply as a byproduct of our trajectory. Not 'progress' mind-you, but our trajectory, as a civilzation. Birth-growth-maturity-decline-death. An unopposable process, i now realize. We don't have to like it, but we do have to accept it to navigate it successfully. The fact that we are not going to alter this process through any act of civic will. Our relationship with the land, should any of us survive this round of a civilization's death which promises to be the most spectacular ever, will return to balance because and when there is no other option, but it will take the collapse of this model to sweep the field of options. We will be farming with our own backs, behind an ox or mule or horse once again, or not at all. I have a full catalogue of Wendell's books, love 'em. I now see them for what they are whether many realized this or not - as requiems to a dead model that was just one more casualty of our inevitable decline and fall rather than as calls to action. A person can act out the elements of that vanished time, as i did for years. It has no effect on where we're headed. A person must simply accept this. Acceptance comes with a full vital workload too.