Guest Post by Didi Pershouse
What is the Great Work Of Our Time? For me it’s to retell our current story so that it makes sense again. So that people can remember what’s true. Though it’s not clear from what we see in the news, we live in a nested world where things work together so that everyone has what they need.
Here in my yard, there are thousands of ventilators pumping oxygen into the air, along with airborne antiviral medicines in the form of volatile oils. The healers whose long arms hold these ventilators up in the light speak to us, saying, “Breathe, breathe, breathe.” Because our out-breath, our CO2, is their in-breath. We are made of air and water that plants transform into food for all of creation. We are made of the sky itself.
Plants aren’t just taking in CO2 and pumping out oxygen. Every blade of grass, every tree is pumping out water vapor to cool themselves, and me, and you, and your dog, and to bring it all back again, as clouds and rain. The air above a green transpiring landscape is, on average, four degrees Fahrenheit cooler than above bare soil, and 21 degrees cooler than above pavement. The world below those plants is far cooler as well, providing good working conditions for the water engineers underground.
Water engineers are everywhere, directing flows of water for flood control, drought resilience, and wildfire prevention. Some are visible building dams. Most are invisible, building and repairing the underground infrastructure that makes life on land possible—the huge soil-plant-mycelial sponge that soaks up rainwater, filters it, and stores it for later use.
My home is also surrounded by garbage collectors and an entire recycling industry, working hard to turn things back into reusable components. Without these workers , the entire surface of the earth would be stacked miles high with dead animals and plants.
We will all die someday and be put back to use, to start growing the world all over again. But while you and I are each in a unique body that we are given for one lifetime, never repeated, what will our work be going forward? Let’s tell a truer story about life on earth and who’s really providing those goods and services. Let’s make invisible work visible and give workers everywhere a voice. We all can be fed, we all can have clean air, clean water to drink, a safe place to call home, and medicines all around us to prevent the illnesses that evolve right along with us.
For this reality to unfold, we first must sing the praises of every essential worker—human, and otherwise.
Didi Pershouse is the author of The Ecology of Care: Medicine, Agriculture, Money, and the Quiet Power of Human and Microbial Communities and Understanding Soil Health and Watershed Function. She teaches participatory workshops both in person and online, helping to connect the dots between soil health, human health, water, and climate resiliency. She is the president of the Soil Carbon Coalition, the founder of the Center for Sustainable Medicine and the Land and Leadership Initiative, and a co-founder of the “Can we Rehydrate California?” Initiative. She was one of five speakers at the United Nations-FAO World Soil Day in 2017.
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