Writer’s Voice with Francesca Rheannon
William deBuys
When conservationist and author William deBuys was invited by Zen master Joan Halifax to go to Nepal in a medical mission, he leaped at the chance to see a region gravely threatened by ecological disruptions — a last chance to see things as they have been for millennia.
What he discovered was a way to hold both joy and grief simultaneously in his awareness. Joy at the beauty of the natural world, the human exchange with the Nepalese, and the opportunity to practice care for both people and the planet. But always, the undertone of grief in this age of loss.
Bill McKibben called de Buys one of the planet’s great observers, saying that the Trail to Kanjiroba may be his masterwork.
DeBuys is the author of ten books, including A Great Aridness, which we spoke with him about in 2012.
James Rebanks
When James Rebanks was a kid, he didn’t want to follow in his father’s footsteps in the family business of farming. Until, that is, his grandfather stepped in to awaken in the boy a love for the natural world and the stewardship of it.
His grandfather farmed in the old ways. Rebanks writes that he was “a boy living through the last days of an ancient farming world”, where the farm animals, wildlife and his Grandfather were “part of the same whole.”
Then his grandfather, and his way of farming on the land died with him—for awhile. Rebanks father tried to farm in the new, industrial, monoculture way, with disastrous results.
When Rebanks inherited the farm, he revived his grandfather’s legacy and brought the land back again to wholeness. He chronicles that journey in his beautifully written memoir, Pastoral Song.
The great nature writing legend Wendell Berry said, “James Rebanks’s story of his family’s farm is just about perfect. It belongs with the finest writing of its kind.”
Rebanks is also the author of a bestselling earlier memoir, The Shepherd’s Life.
Monday, September 20 at 10:00 PM and archived.
First Voices Indigenous Radio with Tiokasin Ghosthorse
Dr. Linda Manyguns is a Blackfoot woman born on the Tsutina Nation. She has worked at the Indian Lands Claims Commission in Ottawa, and is now the associate vice president of Indigenization and Decolonization at Mount Royal University in Calgary.
In the second segment, we hear “It’s Time to Get Ready” from Chief Oren Lyons, Faithkeeper of the Wolf Clan, Onondaga Nation. It’s about the “ignored warnings and how we are living in the time of a 200 year-old prophecy. It will get worse before it gets better.” Get ready.
Tuesday, September 21 at 12 noon.