Tyson, Chicken Rancher 🐓 on Nostr: Wendell Berry helped me to see that there have always been two types of American ...

Wendell Berry helped me to see that there have always been two types of American people: those that are always looking to expand and exploit the land, and those that want to conserve and care for it. He taught me the truth of the cliche that the best things in life cannot be bought with money, and that instead those things are bought with love and commitment.

Because of Berry, I long for a sense of place for myself and my family. In this respect, I can appreciate the native peoples' ethos of the land and their relation to it. A place is the land and the people who live there, altogether. For Berry, that was a Kentucky farming community. It's different for each of us.

In an interview after the 2016 election, Berry was asked about his preferred candidate losing. He replied something like, "Even if Hillary won, I'd still be on the losing side. I'll always be on the losing side." From that, I recognized that to embrace a life apart from consumerism and land exploitation is to reject values that are embraced by the vast majority of our fellow citizens, and that you can't change them but that it's totally OK. Berry never gave up hope and rejoiced to see that a small minority understood and agreed with what he advocated.

Anyway, I'll miss him but believe he had a good life and went because it was time. Goodbye, Andy Catlett.

Now go visit your local farmers market before the season is over.

#wendellberry