TENDING OUR GARDENS

A Letter to the Editor written by Richard Cochran of Indivisible of West Central Michigan

The hot, dry summer we’ve just endured in Big Rapids has reminded, if not taught me a

lesson urged by Voltaire: “tend to your own garden.” I’m really not a gardener in the grand

sense of that word, but I do like seeing to it that our lawn is neat and tidy. Only this year,

without regular watering to offset the heat and absence of rain, something had to give. By

the end of July a good stretch of our lawn was baked into our mercilessly hardened clay and

sandy soil.

Surveying that sorry sight six weeks ago or so I started watering daily, long before sunrise.

In daylight I reseeded and fertilized, coaxing the brown blades slowly back to life. Those

quiet hours outdoors in the dark, watching stars and noticing the waxing and waning of the

moon gave me plenty of time to meditate on the meaning of renovation and repair,

restoration and rejuvenation. Inevitably my thoughts turned to inescapable comparisons

with the fraught state of our battered democracy. What to do. How to proceed. Where to

start.

To that end, this summer I’ve found myself consciously listening harder to the words

spoken by those with whom I don’t always agree – seeking to fathom and understand

others’ points of view, and to give credit when credit is deservedly due.

My enduring affection for a “verdant sward” surrounding our home will never permit me to

accept a scorched earth landscape for very long, nor could a tragically deteriorating civil

society around me permit me to sit idly by either. But it seems the same sort of patience,

perseverance, and faith is needed to repair the old (and new) wounds disfiguring both

settings. The only practical way forward is to commit time and energy to the task. It’s not

easy, it won’t happen overnight.

Long ago Oscar Wilde wrote: “Discontent is the first step in the progress of a man or a

nation.” The generous qualities of TLC (albeit liquid) heaped on our front lawn did wonders.

With a vision of hope and determination, much larger projects can be accomplished.

Richard Cochran

Big Rapids, Michigan