Like nearly half of Americans who voted in the election earlier this month, I’m disappointed with the results. I’m disturbed that so many people were willing to vote for a sore loser who values TV ratings over hard work and experience. I’m sorry Kamala Harris couldn’t convince more people to follow her down a path paved in freedom, mutual aid, and joy. I’m frustrated by all the people who didn’t vote one way or another. Much of what I hear on the news makes me angry, confused, and disheartened. Thank g!d for the farm.
Research shows that having your hands in the soil and spending time with other people can help ward off depression and loneliness. Farming gets your body moving which is the first step towards better mental health. Bonus that you are getting exercise outdoors in the fresh air absorbing Vitamin D. When you grow your own food you eat better. When you eat better you feel better. And the kind of urban cooperative farming we engage in provides opportunities for social connection.
The climate is changing and the earth is literally on fire in many places, but when we come together to work with the land, we do our part to help keep her alive. Our efforts on the quarter acre we’re stewarding may not have a huge impact on its own, but imagine the impact of 1 hundred, 1 thousand, or 1 million people engaging in small scale collective farming and rewilding native habitats. Doug Tallamy is mapping the latter through Homegrown National Park. It’s beyond time we had something like that for urban farming.
If you’re angry about the election, I strongly advise you to follow the advice of Lukas Nelson & Family: “Turn off the news and build a garden.” I promise it will help you “feel a bit less hardened…a bit more free.”
There are tons of resources on this and other blogs that can help you. And I, like most every other grower I know, am happy to answer any questions sent my way. Talk to people, find your allies, check some books out from the library, start a garden journal, and start getting ready for next season. I can’t tell you it will stop He Who Shall Not Be Named* from doing dumb shit, messing stuff up, and enabling others to do the same or worse. Potentially a lot of stuff. But I’m sure it will make you, and any friends you bring along, feel better, and stronger, and ready to fight the bastards when the time is right.
This all aligns really nicely with something my friend Cheryl has been teaching in our Jewish community the past few weeks. Our tradition offers three suggestions for hard times:
1) Don’t mourn alone.
2) Express gratitude.
3) Practice tikkun olam (find, uplift, and bring light into the world through acts of loving kindness and repair).
Reflecting on how our farm has provided and will continue to provide space for all these things makes me feel some hope in the darkness. And I hope by reading this you might feel inspired to find or make space like this in your community. If you’re around Columbus, plan to join us sometime in the spring. Over winter, consider taking a class at the Columbus Garden School. Check books out from the library (see some of my early recommendations here.) It’s always the right time to start building a garden.
*I thought it would be interesting to look back and see what I’d written before about working through the 2016 election by farming. I search for his name and only found it in one post. I’m proud I kept him out of this space. He’s one of the few people whom I would never invite over for a salad.
