The water downstream will not be clear if the water upstream is muddied.
~Korean proverb
Update 8/23/2010:
Granddaddy passed away last evening, surrounded by all his children and grandchildren, plus friends and other loved ones.
It was a peaceful death, and he knew that he was well-loved.
I already miss him.
~*~
Many of you will know, from following me on Twitter, that my grandfather has had surgery, and that I have gone to Atlanta to be with him and my family now. Although I have several August Break posts waiting in the wings, I cannot see publishing them just now. Further blog posts will be suspended until my return.
I want you all to know in advance that I appreciate your prayers and thoughts, healing energies, kind words, encouragement, and support.
What I want for Granddaddy now is whatever is best for him. I trust that that is what will happen. That doesn’t necessarily mean that what will happen now is what I want to happen. Y’all know I’m a greedy woman, and I’d frankly like to have him with me for the duration. But I also do not want him to suffer, any more than he already has.
My grandfather has struggled with the debilitating effects of Parkinson’s Disease for quite some time now. For a long time I was very angry about this disease and what it has done to him. Mostly I was angry about its cause, which is almost certainly exposure to chemical pesticides over the years. Granddaddy was one of the GIs who returned from his service in World War II to a Green Revolution in full swing, and it drastically changed the way he farmed the family land. This new wave of agricultural “progress” required chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and new equipment and machines, plus the debt to pay for it all.
All these years, we thought we knew what that debt cost us: most of the family land. As a result of that loss, I was motivated to personally research and understand what the industrial agricultural system has cost us all, economically, socially, and in terms of physical harm to the Earth, to our own bodies, and to the prospects of future generations.
But none of us realized until a few years ago the price that would be exacted on my grandfather’s own health.
Really, no one should have to pay that.
I am past the anger now. It would be silly to hold a grudge over something that happened sixty minutes ago. How much more so, sixty years?
Humanity simply did not know what it was doing. Our science understood only one tiny facet of the whole picture, and we ran with it, and my grandfather was swept up in that wave of enthusiasm, sure he was part of the new miracle that would allow us to override resource constraints and mold the Earth herself to our will. In our desire to escape uncertainty, we created new uncertainties for our world, for ourselves.
The terrible part of this story is that we are still running with it, even as the picture fills in with color and horrible detail, and even as we come to understand the awesome price we will have to pay — are already paying — for our choices. Even now, this dangerous version of agriculture continues to spread to every corner of the globe.
It is not anger we need now, but awakening. Chemical pesticides have consequences, for us all. Industrial agriculture, especially as it is currently practiced on huge, consolidated, monoculture farms, is unhealthy for the planet — and for the humans. Period.
In honor of my grandfather, I would urge you to consider the source of your food. There are many more reasons for doing so than I can put into a short post before I get on the road. But when I return I will be posting about why it is important to buy your food locally, from small family farms whenever you can. Over the coming year I want to write about CSAs, the grow-your-own movement, what a successful organic farm looks like, and other topics in a similar vein.
As always at the Enchanted Earth, I will not be preaching. My main focus here is sharing my love for this incredible, miraculous Earth and for all of us who are a part of it. The way I figure it, if we love it, if we can feel our connection to it and to each other, if we know deep down that we are truly interdependent with all that is, then our actions will tend to reflect that. The information about what and how to do the things that bring our lives into alignment with our values is out there now, and it is plentiful. What we don’t see so much of lately is why we should care — unless it’s phrased in terms of scare tactics and fear-inducing, worst-case-scenario predictions.
Maybe some of us are mostly motivated by fear. But fear tends to paralyze me, and it won’t keep me going over the long haul if I need to make a change that requires persistence and patience and pluck. The only thing that has ever worked for me in those circumstances is love, a love strong enough to sustain my desire and intention to change.
What my family is going through now is just more proof that none of us lives disconnected from the whole. What we do affects each other and our living support system, this beautiful, spinning blue ball.
For now, I dream of a day when all of our actions will be in alignment with that awareness.
Namasté, y’all.
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