A cup of coffee with composer Ron Thomas
Each line of a poem is a mystery, a puzzle for the mind to solve. Good poems are mysteries so absorbing that only by carrying them around with me does the mystery begin to make sense.
Considering what brings value to our lives as eaters, as well as what adds value to the lives of animals and nearby farming families, will sustain local agriculture and give us a more balanced understanding of what’s on the table.
Of course I’ll build a fence for them, to keep rabbits and deer away. I’d practically sleep outside next to them and shoo the critters away myself.
If Reading really functions as a symbol of other U.S. cities’ struggles, then maybe closely examining one crucial element of what makes people in Reading proud of their community and hopeful about its future will illuminate what can help elsewhere.
Berry’s essay made me think that changing my habits to make them more compatible with earth’s design shouldn’t be done out of compulsion or peer pressure, or even with a sense of deprivation.
The magic of the Coen Brothers‘ 2010 True Grit adaptation is that they get 14-year-old female spunk exactly right.
We are made for community—for many communities. But finding community in the arts can be a cause of great hope or great brokenness.
