What's Steinbeck Got To Do With It?

I thought that I fell in love with John Steinbeck in high school and I felt all the more sophisticated for it. I began collecting books in elementary school but hadn't yet realized that is what I was doing: rocks, dirt from every state, absolutely everything animals and yes definitely books. Before Steinbeck, I read about wildlife, a certain country veterinarian, a redhaired girl named Anne, a family who lived on the prairie... but mostly I read about horses and dogs. I read adventures about horses and dogs, tragic tales about horses and dogs, children who owned exceptional horses and dogs, more importantly, I read encyclopedias about horses and dogs . Clearly with Steinbeck, I had turned a corner, even if the first novel that I ever read by him was The Red Pony.

"Nature always wins," this was the overriding statement  that I chose for an Expository Writing class assignment on  American author John Steinbeck. My professor came across as being dispirited in his written remarks on the last page of my essay by claiming that I had a, "superficial understanding of Steinbeck." Apparently it was structural injustice that John Steinbeck was writing about. Potayto - potahto, or so my nineteen year old self had reasoned. As I reflect back on all of this, I have come to recognize over my thirty nine years since, that nature isn't actually winning, Steinbeck had more to say, and a "superficial understanding" is just as valid of a place to begin learning as any. 

I often wonder, had a broader public awareness of Environmental Justice and Climate Justice existed in the early 80s, if my professor and I would have had a very different sort of exchange. It was after all, Steinbeck's symbolic use of  nature to support his theme of injustice, that drew me into the conversation.  Later on, I was exposed to storytellers like Betty Smith with A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1943) and Jane Goodall's Reason For Hope (1999), who built upon that foundation laid down by dogs, horses and Steinbeck. 

In a day when the internet wasn't, and very few outlets were talking about injustices spurred by environmental conditions, it was already being explored by the foundations, observations and works of our storytellers. Even so, my daughter reminds me that it is time to turn yet another corner,. She believes that we have heard from those who are looking in, that it's time for us to pause our voices and to carefully listen to the voices of those who are living within structural injustices of society. I think that is wise advice given to a person who grew up blindly reciting, "and justice for all" at the start of each school day. 

John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath is hardly front and center on reading lists anymore, and what could any of this have to do with Vernon VT Nature Finds? If I am to be truthful here, this essay is actually a collection of thoughts brought on by unexpectedly having to toss my book collection into a dumpster sitting in my driveway. It's the gutting of our home, the accumulation of 37 years of marriage, our kid's things along with the things handed down from our parents and grandparents all sitting in that dumpster. It's Wayne, in spite of the overflowing dumpsters, placing our recycle bins out by the road on collection day and all the while knowing that for us, all of this is only an inconvenience. We are going to recover. 

"...the most severe harms from climate change fall disproportionately upon underserved communities who are least able to prepare for, and recover from heat wave, poor air quality, flooding, and other impacts. EPA's analysis indicates that racial and ethnic minority communities are particularly vulnerable to the greatest impacts of climate change.."  Click here to read more on this EPA report

Furthermore, this essay is written for Vernon's youth in order to help them to understand that when some person or some group labels your collection of ideas as "superficial," that's just a starting point to a conversation. - Norma Manning

Conversation Starter for young and old alike:

We Are the World, Wikipedia

People of Color are on the Frontlines of the Climate Crises

Was I to Blame the Storm?

I knew on some level that this day would arrive, in fact I used to joke about it with Wayne, "You don't know this but these are the good old days." I find myself increasingly relying on personal experiences to relate to nature and my life here in Vernon. I'm unsure when the transition to reflection crept in, or perhaps this connectedness has always been there; only the novelty of  busy days pushed these sorts of thoughts aside.

"We find after years of struggle that we do not take a trip, a trip takes us." - John Steinbeck

John Steinbeck has for as long as I can recall, been my favorite author, so when my much respected Expository Writing professor assigned us to examine an author of our choice, there wasn't any question as to who it would be. Steinbeck and I shared a curiosity of science in particularly biology and with each piece read, I fixated on the theme that nature always wins. Imagine my embarrassment when my professor responded that my understanding of Steinbeck was superficial. Twenty five or so years later I walked along Cannery Row and touched the statue of Steinbeck there. I drank in the sights of Monterey Bay, Salinas Valley and Big Sur.

"When two people meet, each one is changed by the other so you've got two new people." -John Steinbeck

Our daughter is here from CA and we both found ourselves involved in an unexpected detour of sorts. Kayden who came home to see her grandmother who is struggling with her health, hadn't anticipated becoming a birdwatcher (that is her sister's gig) but when Wayne found a nest of Gray Catbird chicks by the deck, they became part of the family. Not long after finding the nest, I found what appeared to be adult Gray Catbird feathers by the Blue Spruce. Seeing the kill site caused me stress not only for the nest, but also because since last summer, a Catbird has been following me around the yard  as I did my gardening. We have had the most delightful conversations!  I speculated that the neighborhood cat or perhaps a hawk lessened the babies chances of survival and we wondered if they would. Then yesterday I found a second scattering of Catbird feathers in the middle of the lawn.

"I got you to look after me and you got me to look after you and that's why" - Of Mice and Men

I think it's human nature to want to 'help" creatures who may be struggling and so we considered what it would take to aid the little beings. I decided that it was best to watch and see if they were still being cared for. Having no idea if those taken were the parents or if so, how long they could survive alone, we checked on them throughout the day.

"I wondered why it is that some people are less affected and torn by the verities of life and death than others." -John Steinbeck

It would have been easy to be angry at the neighborhood cat for the death of my feathered friend and its offspring even if the cat was not the culprit. Laying blame sometimes relives one of their own responsibilities to look deeper into the matter. We went to sleep knowing that the chicks were alive and looking strong. This morning after heavy rains, I found the nest tipped and all of the chicks gone. Was I to blame the storm?

"It's so much darker when a light goes out than it would have been if it had never shone." -John Steinbeck.

-Norma Manning

Gray Catbird chicks in the nest

Even with eyes closed their mouths opened when we came near

Their home did not withstand the storm