Posted October 03, 2007 in My Dear Family: The Earth is Angry
by Catherine Doherty.  The stocky peasant with the square beard
that tumbled down to the middle of his chest stood easily before
my father. I heard his usually calm voice acquire a vehement
accent: "No, sir," he said, "it doesn’t do to make the earth
angry. It will punish us if we do."  The words struck me
forcibly. I was around thirteen. I wanted to know what our farm
manager meant by this strange sentence, and I asked my father
that night.  He smiled; then his face became serious. Father
explained to me, quietly and with a depth of feeling I did not
suspect he had, that mankind was the child and servant of the
earth.  The earth was our mother, in a manner of speaking, and
farming was a holy way of life. It was a way of life that God
meant for the majority of people. In the growing of things,
first to feed one’s own family, and then to serve one’s
neighbor, man fulfilled himself as a workman.  He went on to say
that work was not a curse. Adam had