Another Turn of the Crank (6)

Title: Another Turn of the Crank
Author: Wendell Berry
Genre: Non-Fiction

Wendell Berry is one of Kentucky's great treasures and it's a real failing on my part that I've read so little of his work. 2008 is the year I change that. Another Turn of the Crank is a small collection containing six essays that each deal with community. Specific topics include local food, local economies, public, private and common wealth land ownership, forestry programs, conversation of land and humanity, health care and education but the overall theme is community.

I wondered to myself as I was reading this collection whether there is value in reading a collection like this where you are in almost complete agreement (even if you didn't know it yet) with the author and his positions. I've got to say that I believe there is first because I do agree with Mr. Berry on so many things that I didn't even know I agreed with him on because I'd not been pushed to think of them and my mind had not taken up the task of pondering them on its own. Second I think there is great value in reading the works of a man who strongly takes and lives his convictions. While I can agree with Mr. berry on so many things I cannot, or perhaps will not is more truthful, move back to the farm or take some of the more drastic measures that Mr. Berry takes on a regular basis to help his local economy, help farming, help Kentucky, help the environment, help society at large. His words remind me of how small my efforts in these areas have been and how much more and better I could do. In short, it gives me a good deal to think about and a good deal more to strive for.

"They believe that knowledge is property and is power, and that it ought to be. They believe that education is job training. They think that the summit of human achievement is a high-paying job that involves no work. Their public boast is that they are making a society in which everybody will be a "winner" -- but their private aim has been to radically reduce the number of people who, by the measure of our historical ideals, might be thought successful: the independent, the self-employed, the owners of small businesses or small usable properties, those who work at home." - Wendell Berry Another Turn of the Crank