More than a book club
The original idea of ‘more than a book club’ is to discuss books, pod casts, films etc that contribute to our understanding of climate change and that might inspire our art, crafting, writing, ritual and creativity. Cora has offered to run a session looking at how our own fears and resistance might get in the way of working to explore the changing Earth through our art. Unfortunately only 4 people returned her doodle poll so we have had to think of an alternative focus for Wednesday.
Hanna and I suggested that discussing Braiding Sweetgrass might be an interesting place to start, as several of us have already read this book. I am attaching a short summery for those of us who have not read it.
As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. In Braiding Sweetgrass, Kimmerer brings these two lenses of knowledge together to take us on “a journey that is every bit as mythic as it is scientific, as sacred as it is historical, as clever as it is wise” (Elizabeth Gilbert).Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist, a mother, and a woman, Kimmerer shows how other living beings-asters and goldenrod, strawberries and squash, salamanders, algae, and sweetgrass-offer us gifts and lessons, even if we’ve forgotten how to hear their voices. In a rich braid of reflections that range from the creation of Turtle Island to the forces that threaten its flourishing today, she circles toward a central argument: that the awakening of a wider ecological consciousness requires the acknowledgment and celebration of our reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world. For only when we can hear the languages of other beings will we be capable of understanding the generosity of the earth, and learn to give our own gifts in return.
