Welcome to another edition of Willoughby Hills!
This newsletter explores topics like history, culture, work, urbanism, transportation, travel, agriculture, self-sufficiency, and more.
Author, essayist, farmer, and agrarian thinker Wendell Berry passed away this week at the age of 92.
I never had the honor of meeting Mr. Berry, in fact I only discovered his work in recent years, largely thanks to Nick Offerman being such a champion of Berry’s writing.
Wendell’s writing and way of thinking certainly has had a profound impact on me and the way that I see the world. His point of view has often been a companion to much of my thinking here at Willoughby Hills, both in the essays I write and the podcast episodes I’ve recorded.
Since many of you are newer to my journey here, I thought I would share some of the pieces I’ve written which explore Berry’s work, contextualize it in my own life, and consider how to move his way of thinking forward.
Essays:
Getting Acquainted with Wendell Berry: My first foray into exploring Berry’s work in 2022, looking at the dangers of specialization and how that can lead to myopic thinking.
Working and Living: Thoughts on living where we work (written at a time when working from home culture was embraced), plus thoughts on ways to make each of our homes more productive, rather than consumptive.
Healthy Soil, Healthy People: On the importance of local food, and advice for people that want to begin to divorce themselves from the industrial food system.
Podcast Episode:
100. Actor Nick Offerman on Wendell Berry, Love, & Comedy: My second conversation with Nick on the podcast. This one very specifically focused on the influence of Wendell Berry on Nick’s worldview.
Never underestimate the impact that your words can have on other people and on the world.
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Thanks for all this Heath. This morning Marion Nestle, perhaps the most prominent dissenting voice of food politics in America today, called Berry a hero of food politics and lauded his "idea that small-scale, sustainable, organic, regenerative agriculture, plant and animal, is the bedrock of a healthy, moral, and ethical life." Hear, hear.