Colored Water
A story of two generations
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My late grandmother, who grew up in the South, used to tell me a story about her childhood:
She was out with her mother as a young girl and she saw a water fountain that said “Colored.” She begged and begged her mom if she could drink from that fountain–she so badly wanted to see what color the water would be.
For her, what she read, she interpreted literally.
It was beyond the scope of her thinking at that age (and with her upbringing) that the label applied to segregation of people. Her mother, of course, refused her request, being aware of the social consequences of deviating from that norm in that context.
Many years later, I read a story (I can’t remember the title or author now) about another child from the south–this one a black girl. Her aunt from New York came to visit and just marched right up to the “white” water fountain and took a long drink.
The aunt explained that it wasn’t that way in New York. Of course, this woman was also actively working to change the social norms, but the story was told through the perspective of the young girl.
Understanding social behavior becomes complex when we get into how and why humans behave in the ways they do.
We tend to ignore the role propaganda has in coercing our minds and directing our behaviors.
But one thing is not overly complex. We each have the autonomy to disregard the prevailing ideology and chart a new course for our lives and our communities.
Just as the aunt from New York did.
She went against the flow.
Yes, it takes courage to break through social norms–even ones that you KNOW are distorted–and to take the corrective action to make an ideological shift.
Humorist and editor Harry Golden did something similar to the woman in the story.
“he once persuaded a North Carolina department store owner to put an ‘Out of Order’ sign over his ‘white’ drinking fountain. Little by little, whites began drinking out of the ‘colored’ fountain, and by the end of the third week ‘everybody was drinking the “segregated” water.’ ” — New York Times (Oct. 3, 1981)
Seemingly small, individual behavior changes create a mindset shift. And then, with support, it becomes an actual paradigm shift.
Our culture has some people in these capacities.
Unquestionably, we need more as we witness the slow crumble of some (many?) of our societal systems that support us all.
And as we teeter on the edge of systemic failure of our ecosystems.
It is not an accident that we are seeing severe flooding and drought in different places in the world. Heat waves and blizzards; desertification and erosion. It’s also not a coincidence. Nor is the simple explanation “climate change” or “weather manipulation” or “deforestation.”
While all of those things are certainly factors, our extreme weather is nature's response to soil mismanagement.
The solution is not easy.
It is not something we can purchase or outsource. We need to check back in with the soil and ask it what it needs.
The solution will happen from the linchpins, the change-makers, and the everyday people who are willing to go against the prevailing food system narrative in pursuit of a holistic approach to how we feed ourselves.
Change makers exist throughout history. They are the Einsteins, the Wright Brothers and Ida B Wells and Joans of Arc. They are Harriet Tubman, Gandhi, Jesus and every courageous 1930-40s European family who housed a Jew. They are the quakers who runaway slaves knew they could trust.
They are the people who compel us to examine new ideas and to explore the glitches in the narrative as it’s told to us.
Maybe your mother, sister or brother or grandparent is one of these linchpins.
Maybe it is YOU.
The point is, our ecosystems need YOU to step outside of convention so we can create the SYSTEM change that we so desperately need right now.
Grow your own food
Source from local farms
Understand soil
Learn permaculture
Understand forests
Grow pollinators
Create an urban garden or farm
Support farmers
Get a clothesline
Turn off the TV
Get outside the propaganda and observe what is real and true and happening in the world.
This is the doorway to our future.
I promise that it will not be easy. I promise it will take your dedication.
There is no magic pill.
Our soil crisis (and hence “environmental” crisis) cannot be solved by talking heads in suits at conferences, round table meetings, and “expert panels.”
It can’t and it won’t.
You’ll need to get a little dirt under your own fingernails.
You’ll need to embrace the instruction that only the soil provides.
It will require the day in and day out labor of your body and soul. You will build a relationship and communion with the land you live on.
No, we won’t be too late because when the time is critical, enough hands will reach out and mend the land.
Is that time now? Will you be one of them? Or are we the prophets and visionaries paving the way for others?
It is your exquisite privilege to be among those who save the earth so that our future generations may inherit it.
For many of us, it was because of our courageous grandparents drinking from the “wrong” fountain, riding buses together–and getting beat up for it–sitting at lunch counters together, and walking to work until their feet hurt that we have (still imperfect) social integration today.
That was their calling.
For us, we too, must build a world that we can live in. A world where clean, healthy food is at our fingertips and a world that isn’t about to collapse from soil mismanagement.
This is our calling and it is our duty to respond to that calling.
About Raw Milk Mama: I believe that we can reclaim our food systems through direct action. But it takes your participation whether you’re growing food, processing, or willing to support those who are. And sometimes, it takes taking direct action or calling on your state or federal elected officials.
I’m dedicated to helping people understand our food system and how we each fit into it..
Here’s how you can be part of it:
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