1943. War. Not just any war. World War. The Soviets break through German lines to reach Leningrad, taking relief supplies to citizens. The Americans take Guadacanal. The British use bouncing bombs to hit dams at Mohne, Eder, Sorpe, and Schwelme to cut power to the German’s industrial sector in the Ruhr. An Allied convoy escapes an attack by 33 U-boats without a single supply ship loss; to regroup, the U-boats withdraw from the Atlantic after their failed attack, but after D-Day, Germany loses its U-boat bases in northern France. June 6 is forever after called D-Day. Patton takes Palermo. Mussolini is deposed. Hitler orders a retreat from Sicily. Aluminum foil dropped from British planes “foils” German radar. Hundreds of British bombers attack Berlin. And all the while all this and more fighting, supplying, strategizing, and dying takes place, S. H. Graham of Ithaca, New York is writing a piece on butternuts for the Northern Nut Growers Association’s Thirty-fourth Annual Report.*
Stark contrast, isn’t it? Literally, the planet is in the midst of destruction and death in a war that will cost tens of millions of people their lives. And S. H. Graham writes, “Many experienced nut tree propagators have little success in grafting the butternut.” He then goes on to discuss the work of nut-tree propagators and to warn that the butternut tree “bleeds freely when cut” (p. 86). Bleeds freely! At the same time as the Thirty-fourth Annual Report, one bombing raid alone killed more than 40,000 people in Hamburg. Bet there was free bleeding.
And so it is with our own times. Our issues aren’t perceived to be issues by everyone. What we consider to be important others might ignore—or even mock. Such is the nature of humans. At times we are ant-like, strung out gathering and not paying much attention to a distant colony member squashed either intentionally or unintentionally. Each of us has a role to play; each of us has a concern that often is a local one, a concern limited to place and like-mindedness. At times, we are the squashers: We squash the issues of others—or worse, squash other members of the colony.
The year will be irrelevant: 1943 in the midst of a world war is simply another year with regard to the focus of attention. S. H. Graham of Ithaca probably knew of war events, probably had concerns about the war, might even have had family and friends involved in the fighting. Yet, while some inventors were busy with designs for bouncing bombs and radar countermeasures, he was concerned about inventing a system for enhancing butternut production. In his world, the war was with frosts in spring, Melanconis disease, and beetles. Noting that in central New York “there are uncounted thousands of butternut trees along fence rows…and along little streams,” he goes on to write, “One person with limited time can hardly hope to examine more than a small proportion of them during the period when the nuts are ripe. The scout for better nuts should lose no opportunity to tell his errand to the people that he meets. I have found the average stranger interested and cooperative. He may direct you to a superior tree that you would never otherwise find. For this work one must be able, like the successful inventor, to hold his enthusiasms after many disappointments. If the coveted variety is not found, one at least has been out in the woods and fields during a wonderful time of year” (p. 88).
Maybe just like the soldiers in the woods, fields, and hedgerows in Europe or the jungles and streams of islands in the Pacific.
Yes, 1943. And yes, this year. There are thousands of uncounted butternut trees and issues to find and examine. Someone has an issue that is not your issue just as you have an issue that isn’t someone else’s. You could, as S. H. Graham of Ithaca recommends, “tell [your] errand to the people [you meet].” Maybe the “average stranger” will be both interested and cooperative. But then, since you are the stranger to whom others might tell their errands, will you be interested and cooperative?
*The Corse Press, Inc., Sandy Creek, NY, Gutenberg file 22587-h.htm, Northern Nut Growers Association Thirty-fourth Annual Report, 1943, online at http://www.gutenberg.org/files/22587/22587-h/22587-h.htm
Stark contrast, isn’t it? Literally, the planet is in the midst of destruction and death in a war that will cost tens of millions of people their lives. And S. H. Graham writes, “Many experienced nut tree propagators have little success in grafting the butternut.” He then goes on to discuss the work of nut-tree propagators and to warn that the butternut tree “bleeds freely when cut” (p. 86). Bleeds freely! At the same time as the Thirty-fourth Annual Report, one bombing raid alone killed more than 40,000 people in Hamburg. Bet there was free bleeding.
And so it is with our own times. Our issues aren’t perceived to be issues by everyone. What we consider to be important others might ignore—or even mock. Such is the nature of humans. At times we are ant-like, strung out gathering and not paying much attention to a distant colony member squashed either intentionally or unintentionally. Each of us has a role to play; each of us has a concern that often is a local one, a concern limited to place and like-mindedness. At times, we are the squashers: We squash the issues of others—or worse, squash other members of the colony.
The year will be irrelevant: 1943 in the midst of a world war is simply another year with regard to the focus of attention. S. H. Graham of Ithaca probably knew of war events, probably had concerns about the war, might even have had family and friends involved in the fighting. Yet, while some inventors were busy with designs for bouncing bombs and radar countermeasures, he was concerned about inventing a system for enhancing butternut production. In his world, the war was with frosts in spring, Melanconis disease, and beetles. Noting that in central New York “there are uncounted thousands of butternut trees along fence rows…and along little streams,” he goes on to write, “One person with limited time can hardly hope to examine more than a small proportion of them during the period when the nuts are ripe. The scout for better nuts should lose no opportunity to tell his errand to the people that he meets. I have found the average stranger interested and cooperative. He may direct you to a superior tree that you would never otherwise find. For this work one must be able, like the successful inventor, to hold his enthusiasms after many disappointments. If the coveted variety is not found, one at least has been out in the woods and fields during a wonderful time of year” (p. 88).
Maybe just like the soldiers in the woods, fields, and hedgerows in Europe or the jungles and streams of islands in the Pacific.
Yes, 1943. And yes, this year. There are thousands of uncounted butternut trees and issues to find and examine. Someone has an issue that is not your issue just as you have an issue that isn’t someone else’s. You could, as S. H. Graham of Ithaca recommends, “tell [your] errand to the people [you meet].” Maybe the “average stranger” will be both interested and cooperative. But then, since you are the stranger to whom others might tell their errands, will you be interested and cooperative?
*The Corse Press, Inc., Sandy Creek, NY, Gutenberg file 22587-h.htm, Northern Nut Growers Association Thirty-fourth Annual Report, 1943, online at http://www.gutenberg.org/files/22587/22587-h/22587-h.htm
RSS Feed