Friday

Coming up for Air, and A Story

In case some of you were wondering why I haven't been posting lately, it's because I'm in full swing preparing for Renegade Craft Brooklyn in early June:



I'm busily preparing little pendants, little boxes and little kits that play music. I'm also busy getting my transportation sorted out, getting things printed etc. The fair is a HUUUUGE fiesta and you'll find me in the track and field park at booth #195

So anyhow, there's a story that's been on my mind for the past few days called Who Owns the Land?
Peter had a fallow garden that he left in the care of Paul. Paul was not a lazy man, he went to work drawing out rocks and dead trees and tended the soil until he was able to sow berries, tomatoes, corn and pumpkins, small trees that he tended and weeded harvested and replanted day and night until, eventually, the land was lush, green and abundant. When Peter came back he said to Paul who had been taking care of it, "Give it back now. The land belongs to me."

"No," said Paul, "I won't. This land belongs to me. You are the owner, but I am the one who has taken care of the land all this time. The land is mine."

Peter's face got puffed up with rage. Paul tightened his grip on the rake in his hand. Well, you can imagine.

Hodja who happened to be walking by saw the fight brewing and walked over to the field. The men decided to use him as a judge. They told him the story and Hodja listened. Then he lay down on the ground with his ear to the earth. "What are you doing?" they asked.
"I'm listening"
"What are you listening to?"
"The land."
Both men laughed. "Listening to the land? So what does the land say?"
Hodja stood up and said, "The land says that both of you belong to the land."

This story was adapted from a story in a book called Tales for an Unknown City . It reminds me of a saying that I heard at my grandmother's last week, "We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children." They both ring true don't they.

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