the peace of wild things
Sojourners' blog had an interesting post today by Cathleen Falsani, in which she pays tribute to the humbly self-contained world of the field mouse. She does so via noted Christian and agrarian author Wendell Berry's small book Whitefoot: A Story from the Center of the World (Counterpoint '08). Apparently, the story is beautifully illustrated and a wonderful read for adults as well children. Here's a passage from Falsani's post, and the book itself:
Whitefoot lived simply, by her instincts, values that the prolific Berry has heralded in his fiction, nonfiction, essays, and poems for half a century. Accordingly, Berry doesn’t anthropomorphize his mouse. ... Whitefoot lives, while busily, without much care.
“She worked and lived without extravagance and without waste. Her nest was a neat small cup the size of herself asleep,” Berry writes. “When she went into it for her daytime sleep, she slept drawn into a ball, her eyes shut, her tail curved around so that its outer end lay under her nose. Her sleep was an act of faith and a giving of thanks.”
p.s. "The Peace of Wild Things" is a beautiful poem by Wendell Berry which Falsani shares at the end of her post.
Ben DeVries
Thank you very much to Br. Tom Murphy of the excellent reference site Mr. Wendell Berry of Kentucky for passing along that the full text of "Whitefoot" is available at Orion Magazine.
Reader Comments (2)
Thank you for sharing this, my girlfriend is a huge Wendell Berry fan so I hear about him from time to time, but I didn't know about this book! It must be interesting (and informative) to tell a field mouse's story without anthropomorphizing her.
Thanks, Adam - yeah, I'm looking forward to reading this book myself, and more of Berry period. Somehow, I haven't yet taken that pleasure, as highly recommended as he comes. Ben