Responding to the Call of the Land

By Steven Mcfadden
Published on May 12, 2010
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In Jack London’s classic novel The Call of the Wild, the alpha dog Buck faces a moment of truth in response to nature, as he stands alone in a Yukon forest swept by wind and snow. Similarly, standing individually and collectively on our earth, we human beings also face a moment of truth. Our call today is not so much from the wild as it is from the land. That call is exceedingly loud and urgent.

One of the most cogent explorations of the urgency is Jared Diamond’s 2004 book, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. He describes the environmental causes leading to failed societies, and compares them with societies that have succeeded. In doing so he arrives at a blunt formula: Environmental crisis + failure of society to address = societal collapse.

The pathways leading to a more damaged and increasingly unstable planet are clear. So also are the pathways to a clean, healthy, sustainable future. The way we use the land to produce our food is, right now, a major cause of the problems. But the wide array of wholesome and clean pathways and models for producing our food has the potential to be a major factor in the solutions. The key, I feel, is first to listen and hear the call, then to respond. That’s what this blog is all about: listening to the call of the land, then exploring positive pathways of response to the call.

Listening is one of the oldest and most valued traditions of our land. For centuries, to listen more clearly, people have made pilgrimages to mountains, fields, forests, plains, and canyons. Over the course of my life, I’ve had the opportunity to contemplate at length in the wilderness over a dozen times, fasting for four days and nights in vision quest with the support of experienced elders. Spending stretches of time on the land that way – light and clear, shielded only by a blanket – I felt the land repeatedly call out simple lessons of relationship: “This is mutual. I will take care of you if you respect and take care of me.”

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