Working the Soil

Garden Variety Psychology

“We are stardust

We are golden

And we've got to get ourselves

Back to the garden.”

Joni Mitchell (“Back to the Garden,” refrain, 1970)

Joni Mitchell wrote this song at the height of the Vietnam War, when young people everywhere were protesting on college campuses and in Washington, DC. I was young at the time, too, and always credited musicians like Joni with keeping the travesty of that war (every war) in the public awareness. The last verse in “Back to the Garden” goes:

“By the time we got to Woodstock

We were half a million strong

And everywhere there was a song and a celebration

And I dreamed I saw the bombers

Riding shotgun in the sky

Turning into butterflies

Above our nation

We are stardust

Billion year old carbon

We are golden

Caught in the devil's bargain

And we've got to get ourselves

Back to the garden.”

In the 70's, musicians like Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, and Leonard Cohen, and groups like Buffalo Springfield, shaped youthful opinion. For young people today, the late night show hosts like Steven Colbert and Trevor Noah hold prominence. And, hip-hop and rap have always been the music of protest. Lyricists, poets and comedians make protest palatable, so that facing reality does not overwhelm us. For that I am truly grateful.

It seems that we are indeed getting ourselves back to the garden. Apparently, in many places, young families have moved back to the land, and are raising their children to live in concert with the earth. They are joining together with others to home-school, making use of on-line and community college courses for higher math and science. Perhaps they have seen the clay-feet of capitalism, and want something different. This is something I once dreamed of doing but did not have the gumption to follow through. I'm glad they do.

We live in a spiral galaxy, and our evolution is spiral in nature. We come around at a different level with each generation. In the middle of the twentieth century, America was immersed in the Civil Rights era, with the majority of Southerners favoring segregation—and not just Southerners, but many people across the country. As we approach the middle of the twenty-first century, we are coming back around to that issue, but the majority of people now embrace multiculturalism and no longer want to live in a segregated society. We believe that all people should have equal treatment under the law, and that discrimination of any sort is abhorrent. The momentum has shifted, and we are at a different level. I am grateful for that; it strengthens my faith that, though we may take backward steps, we are moving in the right direction.

As we approach the turning of the year, let us grow in hope and understanding that while we are not in total control of the movement of history, we can and do make positive changes in its direction. We must never give up. We are succeeding, though it may take a few more generations for that to be obvious. We don't have to be part of the devil's bargain. Welcome to the garden.

                                                                  In the Spirit,

                                                                       Jane