“We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” - MLK
Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday is also a day of service throughout the country. A part of me wishes school was open on this day, to give the school-community the facilities and resources to make a difference. I’d fight my own kids on this belief, as days out of school are sacred, but it would help. Turn the cafeteria into a Free Meal day, or sponsor a reading at the school’s library, or create a social science fair on community service and let this day be the Open House!
Like I said, I’d be fighting my kids on this, especially my son, who can’t figure out a single way to work dinosaurs into this day. But last night we were given a large amount of hand-made clothing for children and they spent nearly an hour sorting them out and figuring out where the clothes should go to.
Watersheds are a good way to bring about a global viewpoint in that we are all related to each other in some way; the environment is as closed or as open as one’s own perspective. That was hammered home with a mallet just yesterday when the kids asked me questions about Beatrix Potter, the conservationist who preserved over 4,000 for England’s Lake District. Known for her children’s stories starting with Peter Rabbit, Potter rose against every limitation in her time, was one of the first scientists to determine the true nature of lichens, and did her best to make the world a better place, starting with her own back yard.
Her main inspiration for writing? The Uncle Remus Tales by Joel Chandler Harris, a painfully shy little man with a bad stammer who remains controversial in the English language yet. For my part, his record of the tale of the crayfish is the one I’ve never forgotten; no one thought the crayfish was of any worth because they were small, but one day they got good and tired of the treatment, dug holes into the earth, and flooded the world.
“No single drop of rain blames itself for the flood.”
I honestly believe that service and service-learning will be moved to the forefront in 2009. It will be partially inspired by the economy, which will be bad and stay that way for an unknown length of time. But humans can either rise to their challenge or they can let it hold themselves back.
Victory gardens…anyone remember talk about them? What was the actual ruler for victory? The fact that over 20 million Americans officially joined the program? Or that a lot of us found it a simple thing to do what they were already doing? We can come out and use the hard facts: Under the Victory Garden campaign over 40% of all the crops consumed during the war years was through VG, or we can point out the long-term affects of pride and self-sufficiency–this is why the SNAP benefit card for below-poverty families accepts food-bearing plants and seeds: You can buy food for a day, or you can feed yourself for a year.
But, what happened when WWII was over with? VG was dropped like a hot potato despite the desires of many supporting partners. The result: A food shortage hit America during peacetime, which had never happened during the trials of wartime itself. No one person was at fault for this, but many. The government failed to keep up its campaign of positive support. The people sponsoring the programs and coordinating food drives, soup kitchens, and nutrition projects lost initiative when attention went elsewhere. Possibly worst of all was the loss of a positive forum for people of different races, backgrounds and wealth. Gardening is one of the few topics that the majority can always relate to; my generation bought seeds smuggled out of the Iron Curtain under postage stamps; today the majority of Iraqi heritage exists outside of its own borders. Africa, Asia, and South America becomes a melting pot for some of the world’s most productive food sources.
It’s difficult to hate one’s neighbor when you’ve got their food in your mouth. It’s also difficult to ignore them.
Today, MLK day is a day throughout America for garden ‘work parties’ where children get together with their parents and collaborate on a rainbow effort for the rainbow world. This is no coincidence. Perhaps someday, when the Dream is fully envisioned, we will all sit down at that table together, proud of our achievements in its creation.
Have a great day. I’m off to wrestle some partnerships with the school greenhouse.
Marcia Wilson-Cales