I once thought of leaving Iowa when I was younger, until I realized everything I loved was here. I try in my own small way to help my topsoil by planting native plants in my yard and by cultivating only ideas.
Nice post. I am often irritated by the disdain or patronizing comments from people on the coasts or large cities, but I also realize that it doesn’t matter. The truth is in the old quote “We have met the enemy and he is us.”
All so true. I just picked up a copy of Living With Topsoil at the Shelter House book sale last weekend--I somehow missed it and look forward to digging in.
Excellent. "Living With Topsoil" begs the question, "For how much longer"? That topsoil that we farm today was mostly prairie for 10,000 years plus. What sustained, and was nurtured by, 400+ generations of Native Americans has been depleted over 150 years (about 5 generations) of tillage at an alarming rate. It's not sustainable.
Further, as we approach corn planting time in the Cornbelt, your post today reminds me of the Meskwaki Chief Poweshiek's farewell speech to Iowa in 1838...something I reflect upon before I pull into that first field with the planter every spring:
"I want to live where men are free! Soon I will go to a new home. You will plant corn where my dead sleep, our town, the paths we have made, the flowers we have loved will soon be yours. I have moved many times; I have seen the white man put his foot in the track of the Indian and make the earth into fields and gardens. I know I must go far away, and you will be so glad when I am gone. You will soon forget the lodge fires, and the meat of the Indian has been ever free to the stranger. "
I once thought of leaving Iowa when I was younger, until I realized everything I loved was here. I try in my own small way to help my topsoil by planting native plants in my yard and by cultivating only ideas.
Nice post. I am often irritated by the disdain or patronizing comments from people on the coasts or large cities, but I also realize that it doesn’t matter. The truth is in the old quote “We have met the enemy and he is us.”
All so true. I just picked up a copy of Living With Topsoil at the Shelter House book sale last weekend--I somehow missed it and look forward to digging in.
Excellent. "Living With Topsoil" begs the question, "For how much longer"? That topsoil that we farm today was mostly prairie for 10,000 years plus. What sustained, and was nurtured by, 400+ generations of Native Americans has been depleted over 150 years (about 5 generations) of tillage at an alarming rate. It's not sustainable.
Further, as we approach corn planting time in the Cornbelt, your post today reminds me of the Meskwaki Chief Poweshiek's farewell speech to Iowa in 1838...something I reflect upon before I pull into that first field with the planter every spring:
"I want to live where men are free! Soon I will go to a new home. You will plant corn where my dead sleep, our town, the paths we have made, the flowers we have loved will soon be yours. I have moved many times; I have seen the white man put his foot in the track of the Indian and make the earth into fields and gardens. I know I must go far away, and you will be so glad when I am gone. You will soon forget the lodge fires, and the meat of the Indian has been ever free to the stranger. "
Nice comment Doug, this is a post all on its own, thanks! It sounds so perfect that you hear this quote as you start the spring planting each year!
Your writing gives me twists and turns to my view of Iowa. Thank you for adding to deeper thinking.
Lovely, Steve.