August 21, 2019
Hi everyone!
I mentioned on Sunday that I have had the privilege of knowing Wendell Berry here in KY. We don’t hang out, but we are acquainted and chat when at the same event. It was I who encouraged the UUA to ask him to give the Ware Lecture when GA was in Louisville in 2013. The UUA President at the time asked Eboo Patel instead, and I was so disappointed! You see, Wendell Berry does not fly, and he was then nearing 80. Instead we invited him to lead our Social Witness event, focusing upon the effects of the coal industry on all of KY, including the areas of Louisville and the Ohio River impacted by the coal slurry ponds and generators.
Many UUs love Berry and use his quotes and poems. But they don’t know him or what kind of man he is. He is very fully human, and also has a good sense of humor! He’s conservative in the best sense of the word…teaching that we will have to go back to old methods of land use, including family farms, local economies, and reverence for nature if the planet and her people are to survive.
Here are some links you can follow to learn more about Berry and read some of his writing.
https://farmerwu.wordpress.com/quotations/wendell-berry-from-the-unsettling-of-america/
https://www.considerthepigeons.com/the-farm-by-wendell-berry
https://www.religion-online.org/article/good-work-learning-about-ministry-from-wendell-berry/
His family have started a foundation, which funds a school for Sustainable Farming, that was originally located here in Washington County. www.berrycenter.org
Become a member! Or just enjoy his writings. What I didn’t mention in my two sermons on transitions is that change happens, when it does, in a myriad of ways, but one very important way is the arts. Visual art, poetry, fiction and non-fiction, as well as movies, theatre and music have all helped change me for the better. As has being a UU and part of a caring and sharing community of other UUs. See you at church!
Cynthia