More Than A Grain First printed and published by SEED Books, a division of the SEED Trust, a non- profit trust for the promotion of well-being, education and ecologically-sound work. SEED Books Trust Reg. No. 9641/93 PO Box 140, Botha’s Hill, 3660, South Africa. Tel/Fax: +27 (0)31-765-1494 e-mail: [email protected] The international version of this book is available for purchase or downloading from www.lulu.com ISBN: © Irwin Friedman, first printed 2008, current revisions 2009 and 2010. This book is circulated subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be duplicated, lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent user. Although based on many aspects of true life stories, places and events, all the characters are entirely fictitious and any resemblance to living people, apart from famous persons, whose lives are in the public domain, is co- incidental. At first, we may look at the land as a history book, recording not only the natural events, but also the human experiences that have shaped the earth, this state, and our lives. Gradually, however, we're discovering how to understand the more subtle messages, the clues that show and tell us how we can sustain this land for future generations. "Once you learn to read the land, I have no fear of what you will do to it, or with it. And I know many pleasant things it will do to you," said Burlington native Aldo Leopold. Iowa Department of Natural Resources in ‘Iowa - Portrait of the Land’ The truth...has never been of any real value to any human being - it is a symbol for mathematicians and philosophers to pursue. In human relations kindness and lies are worth a thousand truths. Graham Greene in ‘The Heart of the Matter’ The world is greater than our words. To speak of it the mind must bend. Wendell Berry author, academic, cultural and economic critic, and farmer. If you can look into the seeds of time, And say which grain will grow and which will not, Speak then to me. William Shakespeare 1 PREFACE At the end, I write this preface and place it at the beginning. The story of life is a mystery that ends, as it begins, in paradox. It is said that the Creator was satisfied on the seventh day of the creation. I wonder, whether that was despite knowing everything that was to follow from all the characters ever to be created, good and evil? As author, I also feel satisfied, but the wonder remains. Did I know each and every thing that each character would do? Honestly, I did not. My characters have accused me of being dishonest about this. Perhaps they are right. Much as we can discern patterns in life, interpret layers upon layers of symbolism in stories, find emergent significance in events and discover profound revelations inside ourselves, often the codes we crack are just our desperate desire to make meaning out of random noise and the anxieties of our dreadful existence. We can never know for sure. I do not know how many others will read this book and find it useful. If they do, that will be gratifying, but it was never its purpose. This journey has been an intensely important and personal investigation for me. A trip, deep into the inner land between the rivers of my worldly experience and ultimate being, where science, art and faith impinge on my puzzled experience of pain – which for me is greater and more terrifying than any other mystery. I am in my satisfaction, very, very grateful to so many others, whom I am not going to name, but I have to say particularly, to the women in my life, who have given me much. Firstly, to my grandmothers and their forebears before them, and my dearest mother, whose passing I have never ever been able to fully mourn, to my precious wife whose wisdom and forbearance are quite extraordinary and to my darling daughter whose vibrancy and love of life were visible instants after birth, and who, quite by coincidence, passed on to me a discarded economics text-book in which I found one page which provided me with the inspiration behind this tale. Secondly, I must acknowledge the many, and I acknowledge many, other women in my life, who in little and massive ways have altered my trajectory so that I have become a multi-dimensional man. I said that I am particularly grateful to the women in my life, and that I am, but I cannot ignore the men either. My father, for his gentle love and the somewhat bizarre type of masculinity that he bestowed upon me, and I would imagine also my grandfathers, and all their forebears before them, my son, more handsome and brilliant than myself, with a sharp wisdom that cuts to the chase. Then also to all those other men, whose views and ideas have shaped me, my friends, even those that I have not seen or acknowledged for years. Rael, for example, for his insightful critique of my geological ideas and pointing out some obvious grammatical errors. Thank you all. This brings us back to the beginning, to where the novel starts. Enjoy the puzzle. 2 CONTENTS Chapter 1: Wood for the Trees ......................................4 Chapter 2: Seeds of Doubt ...........................................23 Chapter 3: Ghre & Granum ..........................................56 Chapter 4: Stories in Sand and Stone ..........................77 Chapter 5: Going to Seed ...........................................91 Chapter 6 : Kine and Kernel .......................................115 Chapter 7: Ingrained in Timber & Truss .....................133 Chapter 8: Dan, DNA, NAD and the NDA ..................150 Chapter 9: True Grit ...................................................180 Chapter 10: Soil and Seed .........................................193 Chapter 11: A Knave in the Grain .............................204 Chapter 12: Dyed in the Grain ...................................226 Chapter 13: Loess & Lust ...........................................242 Chapter 14: Seed Money: the Grains of Paradise .....260 Chapter 15: Sandstone Stories ..................................273 Chapter 16: Mystery and Meaning .............................284 3 Chapter 1: Wood for the Trees "In making these paintings, as you may have guessed, I had in mind something which I hope to convey to a fairly wide audience in America -- the picture of a country rich in the arts of peace; a homely lovable nation, infinitely worth any sacrifice necessary to its preservation. Grant Wood, Iowa-born and bred American Scene artist who founded the Stone City art colony in Anamosa. in a statement accompanying his final painting.. “The purpose of art is not to reproduce life, but to present an editorial, a comment on life.... The artist does not set out to imitate nature. What would be the purpose of that? Let the camera with its clever mechanism imitate. Art, such as poetry, music, and painting, is simply a portion of the experience of the artist. When we actually see ideals, they become real to us. Art traces an abstraction and makes it audible or visual. It symbolizes the whole of life. We believe in something we can see.” Marvin Cone, American Scene artist, friend and colleague of Grant Wood The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see in Nature all ridicule and deformity, and some scarce see Nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, Nature is Imagination itself. William Blake, 1799, The Letters Being thus prepared for us in all ways, and made beautiful, and good for food, and for building, and for instruments of our hands, this race of plants, deserving boundless affection and admiration from us, becomes, in proportion to their obtaining it, a nearly perfect test of our being in right temper of mind and way of life; so that no one can be far wrong in either who loves trees enough, and everyone is assuredly wrong in both who does not love them, if his life has brought them in his way. John Ruskin, 1819-1900, Modern Painters VI I was raised on a ranch in the Dust Bowl and I was there when the dust storm hit….I saw lush grazing land turned into sand dunes. Thistles blew in and fences would be covered in just a few hours. Railroads had plows fighting it just like they fought snow….To me, as an artist, it was beautiful in a terrifying way. I painted it for that terrifying beauty.” Alexandre Hogue, American Scene artist from the South The flames died. The grass and trees were not withered any more and murmured happily together, and every living being cried in gladness with whatever voice it had. Black Elk, famous Wichasha Wakan (Medicine Man or Holy Man) of the Oglala Lakota (Sioux) When we plant trees, we plant the seeds of peace and seeds of hope. We also secure the future for our children. Wangari Maathi, African environmental activist and Nobel peace prize winner 4 Chapter 1: Wood for the Trees Sometimes, it makes sense for an author to begin at the middle, or if not at the middle, at least near the middle and work backwards and forwards. It makes sense, because that is generally how things are for us most of the time - after the beginning, but before the end. The author is after all, not God. He doesn’t really see how, why or where the entire story begins and ends. God saw! Once, long, long ago, if one had stood, on a crisp, sunny October day, amidst the bronze and copper grasses on the maturing fall Iowa prairie, one would have marveled at the asters, goldenrod and black-eyed Susans, sparkling like jewels as they caught the glancing rays of late afternoon sunlight, in an ochre land, bidding goodbye to the summer.