THE WISDOM OF A MAD FARMER

Spears Road, Anderson County, South Carolina

There are no unsacred places;

there are only sacred places and desecrated places.

Wendell Berry

I rise early each morning, take a quick shower, feed our dog, grab a large cup of dark roast, and then set out with my binoculars and camera to discover that is unfolding on the rural backroads of upstate South Carolina. While I never know what to expect, experience has taught me that something extraordinary and beautiful will likely come my way, and whatever it is, it will surely be more satisfying that the political news of the day.

As I move from towns to farm roads, I'm often thinking about one of my favorite writers, the poet, essayist, and passionate environmentalist, Wendell Berry.  Through his poems and essays, as well as myriad speeches and interviews, Berry has given me better eyes to see and understand the natural world.  More importantly, perhaps, he has continued to remind me of how much we are threatened by corporate agriculture, a mechanistic economy, and a modern culture that is more concerned with consumption and convenience that it is with protecting the health of the planet.

One of my favorite Berry poems is Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front. Set forth below, it offers some sensible advice on how to live on the earth with a sense of integrity, purpose, and responsibility.  Just one note of caution:  When you read the words "praise ignorance," do not hastily conclude that Berry is opposed to education.  He is simply reminding us that a good education should come with an understanding of man's historic inclination to eventually destroy or corrupt everything he discovers.

Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front

By Wendell Berry

                                     Love the quick profit, the annual raise,

                                     vacation with pay.  Want more

                                     of everything ready-made.  Be afraid

                                     to know your neighbors and to die.

                                     And you will have a window in your head.

                                     Not even your future will be a mystery 

                                     any more.  Your mind will be punched in a card

                                     and shut away in a little drawer.

                                     When they want you to buy something

                                     they will call you.  When they want you 

                                     to die for profit they will let you know.

                                     So, friends, every day do something

                                     that won't compute.  Love the Lord.
                                     Love the world.  Work for nothing.
                                     Take all that you have and be poor.
                                     Love someone who does not deserve it.
                                     Denounce the government and embrace
                                     the flag.  Hope to live in that free
                                     republic for which it stands.
                                     Give your approval to all you cannot
                                     understand.  Praise ignorance, for what man               
                                     has not encountered he has not destroyed.

                                     Ask the questions that have no answers.
                                     Invest in the millennium.  Plant sequoias.
                                     Say that your main crop is the forest
                                     that you did not plant,
                                     that you will not live to harvest.
                                     Say that the leaves are harvested
                                     when they have rotted into the mold.
                                     Call that profit.  Prophesy such returns.

                                     Put your faith in the two inches of humus
                                     that will build under the trees
                                     every thousand years.
                                     Listen to carrion — put your ear 
                                     close, and hear the faint chattering 
                                     of the songs that are to come.
                                     Expect the end of the world.  Laugh.
                                     Laughter is immeasurable.  Be joyful
                                     though you have considered all the facts.
                                     So long as women do not go cheap
                                     for power, please women more than men.
                                     Ask yourself:  Will this satisfy
                                     a woman satisfied to bear a child?
                                     Will this disturb the sleep
                                     of a woman near to giving birth?

                                     Go with your love to the fields.
                                     Lie down in the shade.  Rest your head
                                     in her lap.  Swear allegiance
                                     to what is highest in your thoughts.
                                     As soon as the generals and the politicos 
                                     can predict the motions of your mind,
                                     lose it.  Leave it as a sign
                                     to mark the false trail, the way
                                     you didn't go.  Be like the fox
                                     who makes more tracks than necessary,
                                     some in the wrong direction.
                                     Practice resurrection.