July 1st 2023
A grateful Chorus*
We’ve been on a bit of a corn rescue mission recently. We had some extremely dry weather a few weeks ago. I decided not to cultivate in order to preserve what soil moisture there was, knowing that the trade off would be more weed pressure down the road. So now we’re cultivating, hilling and hoeing to knock back the weeds. Some people might call it a fool’s errand. It might look like a waste of time. Heck, I probably appear completely insane as I crawl through rows weeding and leaving dirt up to my armpits to reveal tender sprouts so that we can clearly see where to drive the horses. But it’s part of who I am. Sometimes this stubborn optimism is all that keeps me going. Earlier this week I was doing a journaling exercise and considering my beliefs about the world. Without hesitation or thought I wrote two sentences: “The world is good. People are kind.” When I told this to someone later on in the week they chuckled and asked if I actually believed that. (They also asked if I watched the news, and the answers is no.) I know how naive it sounds. I know that it hasn’t always served me well. It hasn’t always protected me from harm. But I really do believe it. And it’s not a desperate need for this to be true, but it’s a firm belief that the world at its core is good and lovely, and that people do their best to be kind whenever they can, and that when they don’t there’s something else happening that we don’t see. It makes me think of Lord of the Rings and the relationship between Frodo and Sméagol. Frodo has to believe that Sméagol can be saved, because in him he sees his own fate. And so to curse him, or lose hope, he also forsakes his own redemption. This is similar. I have to believe that we can heal, that we can plant trees and heap up compost on barren ground. I have to believe that we can forgive each other or learn to trust. I have to believe that a little crop of organic corn can survive. I have to believe that anything, no matter how daunting, can be rescued. And that someone cares enough to do the good work of redemption. No matter what you’re facing this week there is a path forward. I believe it down to my very bones and my up to my sunburnt shoulders.
*Chorus is the variety of sweet corn growing in the Jump Field this season.