For me that means reading. Lots of reading. I have read 2 books so far, as different from each other as night and day, as the saying goes.
First is Ben Logan's memoir of growing up on a Wisconsin farm, The Land Remembers. You don't have to be from Wisconsin to enjoy this book. (And by the way, real Wisconsinites do not refer to themselves as "Sconnies.") Ben Logan was born in 1920 at his family's "Seldom Seen Farm" in the hill country between Gays Mills and Mount Sterling, Wisconsin. Reading it, I was struck by two things:1) Everything Logan writes about happened just one generation ago, my parents' generation. His father farmed with horses, they had no indoor plumbing or electricity, and his family was entirely self-sufficient. I remember visiting relatives on a farm like this in northern Wisconsin, 40 years ago. The changes that have been wrought in a single generation are almost beyond belief, and not all bad of course, but something was surely lost in the headlong rush forward in the name of "progress".
2) The land ethic that Logan learned from his parents seems way ahead of its time. He was taught to be a steward of the land. His father did not jump on every (or even most) agricultural bandwagons, because he was cautious of the long-term effects. Farmers were peddled a lot of snake oil in those days, much of which has led to the environmental crises we are facing today.
The Land Remembers is a beautifully -- even poetically -- written book. Ben Logan left Wisconsin as a young man and had a successful career as a writer and radio broadcaster on the east coast. He returned to Wisconsin in the eighties and bought back Seldom Seen Farm (it had been sold at some point) and lived there until a few years ago. When he moved off the farm, he donated it to the Mississippi Valley Conservancy, with the agreement that they would keep it in use as a sustainably-managed farm.
Highly recommended, especially for people with an interest in sustainability or lovers of memoir.
The second book of the summer is Daniel Pinkwater's The Neddiad: How Neddie Took The Train, Went To Hollywood, And Saved Civilization. In this book, Pinkwater takes the epic quest/hero's journey fantasy and turns it on its ear. It is the early fifties and Neddie Wentworthstein is moving with his family to Los Angeles. On the way he meets a shaman named Melvin, who gives him a small stone turtle, telling him not to lose it. Neddie, of course, has many adventures and encounters both friends and foes, before he is able to complete his quest.
If you are not familiar with the writing of Daniel Pinkwater, you don't know what you're missing. His sly sense of humor isn't necessarily of the laugh-out-loud-'til-your-stomach-hurts variety, but he had me chuckling throughout the entire book. He pokes fun at Jews, Republicans, military establishments, Madison Avenue, Hollywood, and anything else you can think of. A couple of high points, but I don't want to spoil all of the jokes for you:We only stopped for gas, plus once, when we were across the state line in San Bernardino, California, at McDonald's fifteen-cent hamburger stand, where you Buy 'Em by the Bag. "This is a good idea," Seamus Finn said. "They should open more of these."I can hardly wait to read the companion book, The Yggyssey, next up. These books would make an excellent gift for any 11-13 year olds you know, especially if they're getting a little overdosed on the kid wizard from Britain.and"There's only so far we can go with this sort of thing," Aaron Finn whispered. "I think it may be against the law to torture people, even if you're a movie star and a Republican."
