what are people for? essays by wendell berry

WHAT ARE PEOPLE FOR

In this new era of complexities and uncertainties , the man has led himself to move into the intricacies and unprecedented different shades of city life , intricately involving himself into the life that no doubt takes you towards the career growth but also takes you away from the roots of your culture

This is what the essence of Work culture , in What are People For ? In this story , Wendell Berry narrating his own experience , while walking one Sunday Afternoon with his older friend he happened to come across a

br decaying log house that once belonged to his grandparents and great-grandparents . This house stirred my friend 's memory and he related the time when the old-time people used to visit each other in the evening , especially in the long evenings during winter season . It was a routine affair among them to sit till bedtime , after supper , and narrate stories and most of them who were not too tired , neighbors would walk across the fields to visit each other they popped corn , ate apples and tell the tales and narrate their experiences of the day with each other about themselves , living again in their own memories and thus keeping their memories alive . And among the hearers were always the children When the time came , the visitors lit their lanterns and went home . My friend talked about this , and thought about it , and then he said , They had everything but money ' Though they have enough time to share their joys and sorrows with each other yet they were poor , and had local economy to help each other , and had each other 's comfort when they most needed . And now in this contemporary Society people are indulged with the talks with neighbors but their talks are only confined to their career and vocation , how much money they wish to earn and wants to earn and how much leisure items they can possess or in possession of in their homes

The descendents of those people who enjoys the nature , who enjoys the company of neighbors , have now shifted themselves towards the most mechanized life with the people shifting themselves from this world in a quest of own career and vocation ' naturally to amass the luxuries bestowed to them by the very nature and local culture but paradoxically in this quest they are destroying very roots of culture from which is born their own identity

Once Wendell Berry , walked down an old fencerow in a wooded hollow in his own grandfather 's farm , and what he witnessed was the nature 's magic of rebirth again and again and how the people in their career pursuit though destroys their very essence of roots yet again and again nature is reborn to where it is destroyed to again rebuild the career . He saw a battered galvanized bucket hanging on a fence post near the head of the hollow , and what was going on in that bucket was the most momentous thing to know , the greatest...