Too many words

I've been reading some. And I've been thinkin' some about words and how we use them, and how many of them we use. Seems there was a time when good honest hard workin' folks used few words. Their actions spoke for em. People who use a great many words, without much action, are most likely tryin' to bury some kind of lie with lots of words... or they want to tell you a good story. One can usually tell a difference.

Let's take Cormac McCarthy's trilogy on cowboys. The main characters that are strong in their believes and convictions just live and do their work. When things get tough and emotional, they don't go on and on about it, they just work it out. And say things like, "well the last time I was in the city was back in nineteen and twenty-nine." Or, "There aint no virtue in quittin what you aint able any longer to do in the first place."

Can also take Winnona LaDuke's book, "Last Standing Woman". I was all prepared for a book writhe with emotion and drama about a tribe rebelling and taking back the land that was stolen and abused by the invaders that eventually called themselves American's. But no, that was not the story. The people lived their lives. They lost land. They lost language. They lost loved ones, and family, and a way of life that fed all parts of their being. Sure they were mad... they are mad. But the activists took hold and fought with action. Some words, but mostly they just did. In speaking the truth and in trying to make right, its action. That's an activist.

Seems like maybe, there aint a good reason to talk about the deep scars that fill us so deeply sometimes. What words can convey the pain and anguish that we feel when we loose something so precious to us? When someone we loved has been pained so deeply that the tears will never again make us  unsullied and innocent.

What does any of this have to do with packaged food?

So glade you asked. Mostly it just kind of hit me that people doing good work don't need many words. You go to the farmers market and talk to a good farmer, they probably have few words to say. But you get someone that is using a bunch of crap on or in their food, and they have a lot to say. Good work and good food speaks for its self.

Some of this also comes from going on a great urban farm/food security tour last weekend. Most farmers didn't have much to say. They worked with "family" however it was defined. They grew good food for folks to feed their families. They don't want to use any chemicals. That's it. More on that soon after I sort some notes and pics.

All this talk about needing labels for GMO or organic or whatever, is because our food is not our food any longer. Its because people are trying to tell us stories about how our food gets to our plates that includes things that are not much desired by most folks. So a story unfolds. And not the kind you want to tell someone you love before they drift off to sleep.

I guess I'm just longing for the days I never really knew. When a tomato was a tomato and not part tomato part salmon. I long for the days when a person's work was their word. It seems simple. It seems true.