Those who live on the land see it in a way not possible to those who simply drive through it, or visit it recreationally. There is a deep sensuality to farmer’s engagement with the elements. This sensuality is often rich: I recall the pungent smells of new-plowed ground, new-mown hay, harvested wheat. The smoothness of a dirt path and sudden coldness of a dip in the ground on bare feet and legs. The wild beauty of a thunderstorm.
D. notes the omnipresent sky with its changing moods. In one of our conversations, I noted that, in many indigenous South American cosmologies, earth and sky are joined through mythic iconography. European traditions do not have much to say about a sacrilized experience of nature, but people nonetheless often link their daily experiences to their notions of God and the Sacred.
There are also the often acute discomforts of working in near-freezing drizzle, miring down in the far forty with the harvest or the planting already late. Accidents that leave children, husbands, employees, maimed and, perhaps, disabled for life. Water contaminated in the well from agricultural chemicals. Rashes and allergies from chemicals and crop dusts. It’s not all sweetness and light.
continued
D. notes the omnipresent sky with its changing moods. In one of our conversations, I noted that, in many indigenous South American cosmologies, earth and sky are joined through mythic iconography. European traditions do not have much to say about a sacrilized experience of nature, but people nonetheless often link their daily experiences to their notions of God and the Sacred.
There are also the often acute discomforts of working in near-freezing drizzle, miring down in the far forty with the harvest or the planting already late. Accidents that leave children, husbands, employees, maimed and, perhaps, disabled for life. Water contaminated in the well from agricultural chemicals. Rashes and allergies from chemicals and crop dusts. It’s not all sweetness and light.
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