{"id":3119,"date":"2016-11-17T08:00:11","date_gmt":"2016-11-17T13:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/?p=3119"},"modified":"2016-11-17T08:00:11","modified_gmt":"2016-11-17T13:00:11","slug":"from-port-royal-to-danville-wendell-berry-at-centre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/2016\/11\/17\/from-port-royal-to-danville-wendell-berry-at-centre\/","title":{"rendered":"From Port Royal to Danville: Wendell Berry at Centre"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY JAKE MCGUIRK – STAFF WRITER<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Wendell Berry visited Centre this past week to read from his work and converse with students. He came to us, radiant and witty, to share his intellect and poetic spirit. If you read Berry, you know his genius. If you heard him speak, you know his heart. I will attempt to offer here a glimpse into Wendell Berry\u2019s philosophy in case you missed his visit, or if you just want more.<\/p>\n

Wendell Berry is a Kentuckian and a poet. Berry seamlessly marries language and spirit to proffer his wisdom on life. From political critiques and environmentalism, to love, faith, and happiness, Berry writes from the heart and the mind. He is clear and direct and beautiful at once. Reading Wendell Berry is revelatory, refreshing, and challenging in the most beneficial sense of the word. He writes and speaks in advocacy of love, of peaceful and simple living, of care for the earth, and, to those same aims, of the many mistakes we have made as a society that bar our way to the good life. Generosity and modesty are invaluable virtues to Berry which stand in valiant opposition to so much of what our world has become.<\/p>\n

He writes of places \u2013 mostly places in Kentucky \u2013 and has the singular ability to make you feel as if you are there. His words are in<\/em> the places he describes, not superimposed on them. In his poem, \u201cHow To Be a Poet,\u201d Berry writes that there are \u201cno unsacred places; \/ there are only sacred places \/ and desecrated places.\u201d The land is indeed sacred to Berry, and he thinks it should be important to us all. He decries the way we exploit and abuse it, be it industrial mining or misguided conservation efforts. Moreover, we forget that nature is not only the land, but also the creatures that live on it, including people. \u201cYou mustn\u2019t ever separate the land and the people,\u201d he warns.<\/p>\n

Berry is concerned with Kentucky specifically. Like many, he sees a state in decline. Berry attributes this to the coal industry and the decreasing number of small farms. It is made worse by politicization, usually at the further expense of Kentuckians. For example, on the supposed \u201cwar on coal,\u201d Berry says, \u201cit is an exploitive and irresponsible phrase that condenses a complex matter into a quotable falsehood. The people hollering about the \u2018war on coal\u2019 are the same bunch who allow these regions to become a single product economy, and to then be ruined by that single product economy.\u201d Coal mines first provided work for Kentuckians, but also made them dependent on it. Then, machines replaced the workers, and left them with nothing. Elsewhere in the state, mechanized agriculture replaced farmers and made it impossible to earn a modest living without possessing immodest amounts of money to invest in machinery.<\/p>\n

Berry thinks there is plenty of potential for Kentucky despite the destruction wrought by industrialization. Berry laments that \u201cthis state is half-forested and nobody talks about it! And nobody talks about the people, other than saying they need jobs.\u201d He prescribes agriculture and forestry for Eastern Kentucky. There is not much arable land, but there are trees, and there is room to raise enough crops to subsist. \u201cWe oughta be feeding the people,\u201d Berry says, rather than being concerned with what products they can make to export. They need not grow food to sell in bulk. Most politicians and businesspeople would probably argue that there is no sense in producing something or investing in something that cannot be sold. Berry thinks that is nonsensical, that people should grow for themselves and their local communities.<\/p>\n

Berry\u2019s ideal economy is one that deals little with money, and more with life\u2019s essentials. Why focus on symbols of value like currency, which is valueless, when we should care more about those things which really are valuable? Food, neighborliness, and love should be our currency. One of his favorite sayings describes how people in agricultural communities of his childhood thought of their work: \u201cNobody\u2019s done until everybody\u2019s done.\u201d If one farmer hadn\u2019t finished harvesting, the rest of the community helped out. Until he or she finished, no one was finished. Berry stresses that there was no talk of money or transaction in this situation. \u201cYou could stay for dinner if they offered it, but you couldn\u2019t take any money,\u201d he recalls. This way of life, Berry says, is \u201csubversive\u201d to the sorts of economic principles we are taught. It is incompatible with what Berry calls \u201cthe \u2018holy rite\u2019 that capitalism confers on the big to destroy the little.\u201d It is important, then, to not compete, but to practice neighborliness. \u201cIf you have a neighbor,\u201d Berry says, \u201cyou have help.\u201d<\/p>\n

Berry stresses the importance of land to the economy. While he has lofty environmentalist sentiments, his concern is very much a practical one as well. It may seem a less important problem than something like poverty or unemployment, but Berry points out that, \u201cThe problems of the city start in the country.\u201d He discusses how the mechanization and industrialization of agriculture destroyed small farms and forced people to sell their land and move to into cities. He says, \u201cCity life is not inherently wrong \u2013 it\u2019s where things concentrate, like schools, the arts, conversations\u2026but cities have too many people in them who don\u2019t have anything to do.\u201d And jobs, he says, are not what matters, but rather work<\/em>. That is to say, work that people can \u201cbe dignified by\u201d and proud of, like growing and making things.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

The only higher privilege than reading Berry is speaking with him directly. He is genial, hilarious, and thoughtful. His humor, somewhat dark, but always lighthearted, is accompanied by a beaming smile. Though he laughs, he is very serious. He is concerned about our world, that it has become mechanistic, greedy, and destructive.<\/p>\n

Berry has a beautiful vision. He seems very young in that respect, possessing a sort of idealism usually associated with millennials. I asked Berry what he thought of idealism, which is often viewed today as impractical and a mark of ignorance. He said, \u201cIf you take idealism to mean having expectations higher than what can be attained, then I\u2019m not an idealist, because I don\u2019t expect much! Ideals, though, are indispensable for guiding us to what is right.\u201d He cautions against idealism without the willingness to act in pursuit of ideals. Our generation should take heed of this advice. While our vision of the world may seem unattainable, it important that we always work for it and not settle for less.<\/p>\n

Berry certainly practices what he preaches. He farms and cares for his little patch of land and the people around him. He seeks ways to live better and counsels others on how to do the same. He is a farmer who lives the good life, and who thankfully has an amazing gift of language that enables him to share his life with the world. He is a neighbor to everyone.<\/p>\n

I want to end with some of Berry\u2019s words. I find the following poem relevant now more than ever:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cEven in Darkness\u201d<\/p>\n

Even in darkness, love<\/p>\n

shows the circumference<\/p>\n

of the world, lightning<\/p>\n

quivering on horizons<\/p>\n

in the summer night.<\/p>\n

Wendell Berry, 1994<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY JAKE MCGUIRK – STAFF WRITER Wendell Berry visited Centre this past week to read from his work and converse with students. He came to us, radiant and witty, to share his intellect and poetic spirit. If you read Berry, you know his genius. If you heard him speak, you know his heart. I will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3120,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}