Thank you to everyone who expressed concern for the pigs that were recently attacked. They are both doing well and still enjoying the upper pasture, although they have been moved further from the highway. We are hoping that all the attention the incidents have received will deter future attacks.I spent an entire day last week talking to reporters about the recent attacks. One reporter asked me how I felt about it and what I would like to see done. Initially, I felt very angry and now I feel very sad, for the pigs, but especially for the people who committed these acts of violence. It seems they have lost touch with their humanity and are now incapable of empathizing with another’s pain. The only explanation that makes sense to me is that they themselves were victims of abuse and the pain they experienced left them unable to feel and unable to connect. They are wounded and are in need of our compassion as well.
I suggested in the interview that this would be a perfect opportunity for some restorative justice – an opportunity to repair the harm done to our family, to the farm community, to the larger community, and to the perpetrators. Yes, harm was done to the perpetrators. By committing this act the people have become less human, and that humanity needs to be restored. This can happen through the process of acknowledging and accepting responsibility for the damage done, agreeing to make reparations, and hopefully re-connecting with the community.
Later in the day, as I was hand planting the peas, I thought about how restorative, how healing, working the land can be. Nature is continually creating life from death and there are constant reminders of the interconnectedness of all living things. Good farming requires an appreciation of that interconnectedness and has the potential to awaken in those doing the work a sense of the sacred.
I don’t know if we’ll ever have the opportunity to invite those who committed this heinous act to join us in the work, but if so, it would allow us the opportunity to take Wendell Berry’s words to heart : “love someone who does not deserve it…………….Practice resurrection.”
Eat well and be well, Susan
