My West is filled with images like these. Ground and sky and the things both present and absent, lending themselves to a singular beauty.
"I have never distinguished readily between thinking and dreaming. I know my life would be much different if I could ever say, This I have learned from my senses, while that I have merely imagined. I will try to tell you the plain truth."
~ Marilynne Robinson, Housekeeping
... A plain truth is this.
There is a value, a weight to a country life.
One of work and struggle, simple pleasures and long odds.
Rural agriculture's actual worth - I cannot say.
But I do know this.
It puts food on the table, and not just our own, that of our neighbors and complete strangers, separated by vast, salty oceans.
Today I attend college in a different part of the west.
Around me are different influences, new ideas and unique environmental challenges specific to the area.
The labor of ranchers, miners, loggers and farmers - while it is the heritage of this place - is looked down upon. Seen often as something brutal, harsh, and ultimately greedy.
Yet, that perspective seems flawed to me.
It tells, a story - but not a complete one.
Perhaps I can share a lens into that west of which I come?
Somewhere between the romantics and the haters, there lies my experience as a farmer's daughter, and my own relationship with the land.
Let us try to see what we can see.
