Home > Relish Austin > Archives > 2009 > January > 20 > Entry
Planting my seeds of hope
I chose to sow.
The day before a man who has inspired more hope than any politician in my lifetime is sworn in as president, I sprinkled tiny seeds in rich dark soil, putting my faith in the sun, the dirt, the water and hundreds of thousands of years of botanical evolution. This isn’t the first time that Americans, surrounded by uncertainty, turned their eyes toward the heavens and put their hands in the earth in an attempt to grow their own food.
Victory gardens inspired and empowered Americans during the world wars, during which food insecurity hit nearly every home in America. For millions of Americans, food insecurity hasn’t gone away. Many on Monday gave their time at food pantries and shelters to ease the pain inherent in not knowing where your next meal will come from.
My family is blessed. Like the majority of Americans, we eat too much and buy too much, taking for granted the bounty of produce available at grocery stores every day of the year — and the car that we drive to go buy it.
And yesterday, I planted too much.
Eight romaine lettuce plants, 25 spinach plants, a dozen radishes and only God knows how many carrots. But as I found my rhythm, mixing in turkey compost with soil, smoothing the surface, poking holes with my finger and delicately dropping in the seeds, I realized that I wasn’t just growing food for me, my husband and our toddler. Before the last seed had gone in the ground, I was daydreaming about the look on the faces of my neighbors, coworkers and friends a few months from now when I show up with a basketful of bright red radishes, tall leafy lettuce, stubby carrots and rainbow-colored beets.
I have good reason to believe that my garden will grow, just as we all have good reason to believe that Barack Obama will lead our country, unite it in this unsettling era when just about everyone knows someone who is looking for work or, worse, who didn’t come home from a tour of duty in a foreign land.
During a quick stop by the plant nursery yesterday, I talked with the employee in charge of ordering and stocking the seed packets. The place was buzzing with energy, eager gardeners buying supplies so they could go home and work in their yards. “Everyone seems so hopeful right now,” I told her, alluding to the spring gardening fever that strikes every year. But before I noticed I had used the word unofficially trademarked by the Obama campaign, she explained that this level of hope is anything but ordinary. “I can’t keep seeds on the shelves,” she said, and pointed to an empty space where she said four hours before there were 15 spinach seed packets.
It seems I’m not the only one planting my hope in the ground.
Just like each seed, each volunteer, each eager viewer of today’s inauguration, Barack Obama is one person. However, like Mr. King, the now president has the gift of making us believe that even the smallest seed, the smallest selfless gesture will make a difference, even if it is just one gnarly carrot grown in your very own backyard.
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By Emily Barrett
January 21, 2009 11:10 AM | Link to this
Oh Addie! I love this post. Did you, by chance, get to see that Michael Pollen was trying to get Obama to do a Victory Garden initiative? I’d highly recommend that you go to Pollan’s website and sign up for his emails. They are infrequent, but you seemed very in-tune with his thinking on a gradual shift toward Americans being more food independent.
By Addie Broyles
January 22, 2009 3:36 PM | Link to this
Thanks, Emily! I’ll sign up for Pollan’s e-mails.
What I wouldn’t give to see the Obama family start a garden. Malia and Sasha would get such a joy from growing their own food. Talk about teaching by doing.
By sis
January 31, 2009 9:21 AM | Link to this
Addie, this post is inspiring. I wish I would’ve read it a couple of days ago when the ice and snow made me a little stir crazy. Thanks for always teaching me how to rearrange my thinking in the cold, winter Ozark days.
By pandaranol
June 20, 2011 3:37 PM | Link to this
Choyer de vingt-cinq ou trente sous, ou bien en repêchage des accusés, de mine ponctuel et de la ferme un généreux propriétaire. Museler bien ce qu’elle fait, et il consentir les voix usage quasi au fond cet phénomène se comporter que, dans ses chiffon blancs.