Sharing thoughts from a Kentuckian

It really is remarkable some of the coincidences one encounters in our world today -- a world in which our modes of travel and communication are so much more advanced.

We were camping last weekend at a beautiful state park in Kentucky on a high bluff above the Mississippi River. It was a remarkably peaceful scene on a literally perfect weekend weather-wise.

The location, Columbus-Belmont, is like other Civil War sites (such as Shiloh) in that the current beauty is hard to comprehend in its contrast to the death and destruction of the event that made its name a place in history.

Meeting interesting people is part of the camping experience, therefore we were not surprised to take up a conversation with a fascinating retired Kentucky couple camped nearby.

After learning the general area of their hometown, we asked if they were acquainted with a Kentucky writer, Wendell Berry, who happens to be one of our favorites.

"I not only know of him -- I grew up with him," said the gentleman, who is a retired minister.

They are both natives of Newcastle, in Henry County, Kentucky. That is the setting for Berry's books, in rural communities along the Kentucky River.

Berry had a career as a college professor before giving it up for the life of a farmer-writer in his native county.

Our new-found friend said Berry is one of the most "down-to-earth" people he has ever known and is a delight to visit with on innumerable subjects.

Berry's lifelong interests came to the forefront early, our friend said, when as a youngster he would visit his own family's house down the street to spend hours in the library developed by his parents. Our friend's father was a minister and his mother was county superintendent of schools, so there was a strong love of learning in the home.

In addition to a series of outstanding novels with the rural Kentucky setting, Berry is a poet and essayist. His essays deal with subjects not normally covered in contemporary media or education. Many are rural-oriented, which would be of particular interest to those of us living and working outside the metropolitan-suburban areas.

We asked our new friend what he considers to be some of Berry's strongest themes. He noted the deteriorating sense of community throughout our nation, the negative effects of mega-corporations in today's economy and the "dumbing down" of our educational system.

These are familiar themes to us as we have read several of Berry's essays over the years.

One of his strongest is "The Work of Local Culture," which deals with the decline of traditional communities throughout the American landscape.

He says a good community is a good local economy -- and we all know the devastation wrought by the large corporate interests where smalltown businesses and economies are concerned.

A large part of the destruction of local communities relates to the large numbers of talented young people who leave and never return. Berry addresses this issue:

"Young people still grow up in rural families and go off to the cities, not to return. But now it is felt that this is what they should do. Now the norm is to leave and not return. And this applies as much to urban families as to rural ones. In the present urban economy the parent-child succession is possible only among the economically privileged."

Despite the problems facing rural communities, Berry does hold out hope:

"I know that one revived rural community would be more convincing and more encouraging than all the government and university programs of the last fifty years, and I think that it could be the beginning of the renewal of our country, for the renewal of rural communities ultimately implies the renewal of urban ones. But to be authentic, a true encouragement and true beginning, this would have to be a revival accomplished mainly by the community itself. It would have to be done not from the outside by the instruction of visiting experts, but from the inside by the ancient rule of neighborliness, by the love of precious things, and by the wish to be at home."

Our new-found friend invited us to visit him sometime in north-central Kentucky and, if it works out, we might be able to meet Wendell Berry on his farm. Quite an invitation, we thought.

(This was written almost exactly five years ago. We were reminded of it during another camping trip to this same location last weekend and decided to publish it again. Nothing has changed in these five years where the continued threat to rural communities is concerned, as outlined in the essays of Wendell Berry. REK)