Wendell Berry: "A Place in Time: Twenty Stories Of The Port William Membership"
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2012-11-14/wendell-berry-place-time-twenty-stories-port-william-membership
Image courtesy Counterpoint Press
Wendell Berry received the National Humanities Medal in 2010 for his achievement as a poet, novelist, farmer and conservationist. He summarized his philosophy in this year’s Jefferson Lecture, titled “It All Turns On Affection.” For more than 50 years, Berry has been writing about life in a fictional small town called Port William. Its families are closely bound by marriage, kinship, friendship, history and memory. They help each other with the hard work of farming and take pleasure in the telling of shared stories. In a new collection, characters age and pass on, but their tales of love, joy and sorrow live on.
Guests
Wendell Berry
author of 50 books of poetry, fiction and essays.
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Read An Excerpt
Excerpt from "A Place in Time: Twenty Stories of the Port William Membership" by Wendell Berry. Copyright 2012 by Wendell Berry. Reprinted here by permission of Counterpoint Press. All rights reserved.
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I'd like to know your thoughts on "Vertical Farming". In Chicago, The Plant, has taken farming indoors in a environmentally friendly manner. Taking farming indoors would eliminate the unpredictability of nature, reduce pollutants, bring jobs to the cities, and allow some of the land to heal itself.
Your guest is right, but this problem begin at home, parents are not teaching their kids to take care, love and respect the environment .
Thank you
When I was a student I resented being asked to help on our farmland.
After a crime trauma in my 20s, mowing and cultivating and doing forestry became part of my recovery. Now I'd die before I'd give up our reserve. And now I love the river that runs along the west border, and care about all who drink from it, want to stop all who use it as a sewer. Wendell is correct we need to ration fuel to see that it goes to the best use. Price needs to reflect the costs of extraction too. Our people have no freedom of movement without walking trails between our communities. Cars are antisocial. Landowners who refuse such easements (often along waterways and railbeds, sometimes abandoned) are enemies of society. If we slowed down to a reasonable pace we'd never crave bullet trains. Jerry Mander blames Corporate Capitalism for destroying this planet and says it is obsolescent. (Capitalism Papers) But neither he nor I condemn those who establish a local enterprise sharing their specialties with the neighbors.
I hope I'm not casting aspersions, but when I think of a man in our time who exhibits true conservative values, I think of Mr. Berry: someone who values land, people, culture and things properly. I sometimes ask so-called conservatives what it is they're trying to conserve, knowing they have no coherent answer. Asking Mr. Berry that same question leads to a deeper understanding of, to paraphrase one of his titles, what people are for. Thank you, Diane, for featuring an American treasure.
I also never realized until this morning that Port Royal is as close to Cincinnati as it is.
I'd just like to say that I'm sitting here in tears in my office after hearing that beautiful excerpt. I'm so glad to see Wendell Berry getting his due after all these years. I was raised on a conservation easement in Virginia, and plan to live out my days on that same land, and Berry has always been a hero to our family!
I would like to thank Mr Berry for all of his contributions. As a nature lover and reader, you have touched my life in a very personal real way. In very stressful times, I have turned to your poetry and nature to help me stay grounded. I have often read your writings to my children (now grown) and they find guidance in your words. As a fellow Kentuckian, our land is part of who we are and who we will become, and who came before us. Thank you.
Julia: Right now cities are reclaiming communal urban gardens for wealthy interests to develop. If agriculture comes to high rises I expect it will only amount to a fad. Right now we mostly have drawings and foundation grant showpieces. If there is something more profitable it will pre-empt these ideas. That's the free market... the rich always wanting more and having their way. Much of the best bottomland near my home is now malls, condos and office estates. Half of the canned and frozen goods in supermarkets are imported. The USA exports GM grains mostly and imports most everything else, We can no longer feed ourselves. Thanks Big Business!
I would appreciate your response to these notions: first, hemp production as an alternative source of energy to corn dedicated to ethanol rather than food; second, restoration of passenger rail networks in middle America. Major projects for the common good, the common wealth.
What would you tell young people who are beginning to feel a loss of hope concerning the environment?
-Brooke Armstrong
Wendell Berry is in my opinion the true voice of American values! I would love to see more people run for public offices that believed in the values that he portrays! I would like to know what he believes is the future for American small farmers and homesteaders. And how he feels we could best keep this tradition continuing with a generation of Americans growing up with technology and convienence?
Can someone provide me with the source of the reading regarding funerals? It was referenced in a call-in at about 10:45 this morning, by a woman who was thanking Mr Berry and was just experiencing the death of her father. I would like to read that piece but do not know where it is from as I was not listening at that time. thank You.
My father, Bob Fleming, worked as a Washington Journalist for many years. He was an astute observer of the national character.
I once asked him what he thought about the future of America. He said
"There are two kinds of people out there: Those that think there are two kinds of people, and the rest of us, who know better."
We belong to each other.
And we are all downstream..
Thank you Wendell.
I missed calling in but had a question for Mr. Berry. I am interested in how he views ADHD youth and the benefits of their healing in nature. Presently I am working on a book on alternative approaches for ADHD without medication. He has inspired many in natural living and embracing nature. It would be inspiring to hear his bend on ADHD and the role nature plays in helping them.
Marilyn,
I'm an adult who probably still suffers from ADD/ADHD,
I'm fortunate to live in a home with tall trees on three sides.
The trees seem to ground me, to absorb the hyper and calm me. It's almost spiritual.
.
Ms Rehm,
Your conversation with Wendall Berry is "a keeper"! Hearing him read the excerpts from "A Place in Time" left me sitting in a parking lot weeping - having been touched deeply. Thank you.
You and he are national treasures.
Please continue to produce such exemplary radio programs. Whether current affairs or literary highlights, you set the standard and no one else comes close.
Most sincerely,
arbora sue
I couldn't sleep this morning so I put in the earphones and listened. Now I'm wide awake and will be early for work. I'm teaching school in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia but am from North Central Washington and will return there next summer. I loved the pairing of two wise old heroes, Rehm and Berry and was thrilled to hear a caller from home, One Pine. I thought all the listeners were amazing in contrast to the stereotypical call in show participants. The comments were thoughtful, and full of hope and appreciation. Can there be better advice than to try to make yourself clear instead of winning in a debate or conflict?
Hi Marilyn, Good luck writing your book (very much needed in our world)! Not to go off topic from Mr. Berry, but I saw your question and wanted to share a book that may also be of interest to you. If you haven't discovered the work of Joseph Cornell and his amazing little gem "Sharing Nature with Children" I recommend it. My family enjoys this book a great deal. love and blessings, becky jaine
Grounding, this is a very interesting response. It makes a lot of sense.
Thank you so much.