Tonight I mixed water and peat, getting ready to plant again, as I have, as I will, so long as I can. Tomorrow I sow the pepper seeds, in two weeks the tomato seeds.
And so it starts again.
***
I pray that my students remember this much--that they were able to grow food in class, with little more than tiny seeds, light, and water, that they are part of this miracle of life, that ultimately the things that matter are ours through grace.
Not through government, or cash, or the gametes of a couple of wealthy Americans who happened to get together.
A child learns that she is part of something bigger than mere human culture becomes someone to be reckoned with.
No matter what happens on Wall Street today, or in Trenton today, or in D.C., water will start to seep into the seeds I sow, and awaken an embryo every bit as alive as I am, and it will ache to reach the sun.
Everything we eat comes from the ground, and everything we eat will return to the ground, as will each of us.
***
This week I got to meet a couple of folks with a whole lot more human power than I'll ever have, or ever want, folks who rule over abstract concepts using abstract ideas, tossing around abstract half-truths that they either believe (bad) or not (worse).
Planting last fall's seeds into the ground with my hands, a very human act, reminds me of my place. We are all all bound, literally, to the earth. Holding a handful of good soil does me good.
Plants above grown in Room B362, by my students.
Posts
2 comments:
It snowed again today. But planting seeds give me hope.
Peas first.
I have yet to start sets inside. Each year I think that maybe this year I will make a cold frame. Not yet.
But I can direct seed. And that I will do.
Dear Kate,
I am sore today from the first real day of gardening this year, a good kind of sore.
The birds were glad to see the ground splayed open again. The worms, less so....
Post a Comment