I’d like to share one of my favorite passages from Wendell Berry. It’s taken from the essay “Elmer Lapp’s Place (1979),” from the book Bringing it to the Table: on farming and food.
“Standing in the stanchion barn while the cows are being milked, I am impressed by how quietly the work is being done. No voice is raised. There is never a sudden or violent motion. Although the work is quickly done, no one rushes. And finally comes the realization that the room is quiet because it is orderly: All the creatures there, people and animals alike, are at rest within a pattern deeply familiar to them all. That evening and the day following, as I extend my acquaintance with the farm and with Elmer Lapp’s understanding of it, I see that quiet chore time as a nucleus or gathering point in a pattern that includes the whole farm. The farm is thriving because what I would call its structural problems have been satisfactorily solved. The patterns necessary to its life have been perceived and worked out.”
