This post is about value.
Dick Richards, author of Come Gather Round, talks about values that are connected to the land. Dick was discussing Rosa Say's book, Managing With Aloha and how Rosa also feels this connection to the land. The spirit and richness of both Rosa and Dick's point of views are treasure-laden.
I too had a sense of connection to the land. I just didn't know it.
How is it that a person can live for nearly a half-century on this planet and not know something about themselves? Afterall, who else have they had the pleasure of hanging out with for that length of time? But that's just life, right? That part's called learning, right?
To learn. We learn traditionally from school, books, the Internet, tapes, teachers and so on. Perhaps we'll garner an interesting fact or we'll learn how to use Excel. Cool, we get excited and file it away...and hope we can decipher our own filing system when we need to. I know, I know brothers and sisters, I'm feeling your pain. What happens however, when we learn something that we've known all along? Ecstasy.
The experience of eliciting a connection to a reader might be an author's greatest reward. "Thank you for putting words to this feeling." "You know, I've always felt this way, I just didn't have words for it." In my case, I didn't even know I felt that way. This is my light source, the part about the value. Remember, this post was about value, right?
If I had never met Rosa, I might not have read her book and I might not have met Dick Richards. I surely would not have made the connections between my feelings and the land, the land of my experience and memory. This is value folks, deep and personal value. It enters my world from community and communication. Our connections with each other cannot help but to enhance our connections with the land.