As Gill says, "every man is called to give love to the work of his hands. Every man is called to be an artist." The small family farm is one of the last places - they are getting rarer every day - where men and women (and girls and boys, too) can answer that call to be an artist, to learn to give love to the work of their hands. It is one of the last places where the maker - and some farmers still do talk about "making the crops" - is responsible, from start to finish, for the thing made. This certainly is a spiritual value, but it is not for that reason an impractical or uneconomic one. In fact, from the exercise of this responsibility, this giving of love to the work of the hands, the farmer, the farm, the consumer, and the nation all stand to gain in the most practical ways: They gain the means of life, the goodness of food, and the longevity and dependability of the sources of food, both natural and cultural. The proper answer to the spiritual calling becomes, in turn, the proper fulfillment of physical need. Wendell Berry
About This Quote

The concept of "giving love to the work of our hands" was a popular idea during the 1930s and 1940s. The movement was intended to instill a work ethic into American culture. The idea was that we should focus on how we could better our lives and abilities through hard work, not using government handouts or charity. It was an ideology that had some merit, especially when you consider how much our society has changed in the past seventy years.

For example, if you would have asked workers during the Great Depression what they needed - food, clothing, shelter - they would have said things like more food, more clothing, and more shelter. These are items that are easy to maintain for someone who is working hard every day. Of course things are different now.

We are not in a serious economic recession, but our societies are still struggling with issues of unemployment and social security. This doesn't mean that the "giving love to the work of our hands" ideology is wrong; it just means that it needs some updating today.

Source: Bringing It To The Table: On Farming And Food

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