Getting Ready: Taking better care of the Earth and all her gifts
When I was a child, a military dependent, I never met a vegetable that hadn’t been frozen first. Broccoli, lima beans, peas, corn, carrots, and spinach – my all-time least favorite - came out of boxes that arrived from the nearest commissary and waited in the basement deep freeze until being plucked out and boiled to accompany some previously-frozen meat.
Don’t get me wrong. My brothers and I were grateful to have “three squares,” and we didn’t know what a difference we were missing. But even now I can remember how yucky those vegetables were, and how we invented ways to dismiss them from our plates as inconspicuously as possible. One brother hid peas under the edges of his dinnerware, or in the half-consumed glass of milk. Another wrapped lima beans in his napkin, hoping to be dismissed from the table and get it to the garbage before they were discovered. I hoped beyond hope that my father’s fork would travel between his plate and mine to scoop up the puddle of spinach I couldn’t get down, no matter how much vinegar I used to try to drown it!
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It was the 60s, and if anything grew around our home(s) it was flowers, not vegetables, and while we were grateful to have food on the table, there was a profound disconnect from where it actually came from, and I now know it was a missed opportunity to understand our relationship with the earth. It feels odd to remember that when I was small, all things edible came out of the freezer, not the ground, except for the iceberg lettuce, of course. That came from the refrigerator.
My husband and I bought fresh vegetables for our children, hoping to provide a more successful culinary experience if nothing else! I was not yet familiar with how much fun it can be to grow one’s own food. So, you might imagine my delight this week to see a picture of the next generation – my grandchildren – pulling carrots from their very own raised-bed garden! This year they are growing corn, broccoli, red peppers and tomatoes as well. They are seeing tiny seeds of promise become food on their plates because of their care and attention. They are forming a relationship with the soil and the sun, and learning how amazing a fresh pea is when it pops straight out of the pod! They rarely wait for it to get to their plates, actually, much less find ways to hide them!
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It is my hope, in our climate-changing world, that we might reclaim a right relationship with the Earth and all her gifts, and take better care. We humans have prioritized convenience and expediency to our own detriment, not to mention the Earth’s. It is past time to change that equation and remember how indebted we are for our very survival; to give back, to do better, to try harder not to take, but to leave something good.
As we say in my world: may it be so.
“Preachers don’t get to opt out of politics; we can be chaplains of empire or prophets of God.” - the Rev. Dr. William Barber.
Rev. Bancroft volunteers with York Ready for Climate Action. YRCA is a grassroots citizens’ organization dedicated to increasing awareness of the causes and effects of climate change and advancing environmentally friendly and inclusive policies and behaviors. Please see yorkreadyforclimateaction.org or info@yorkreadyforclimateaction.org. Information about EcoHOMES is on the same site.
This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Getting Ready: Taking better care of the Earth and all her gifts
