Defining True Wealth: Priceless Traditions

This article was printed in the June 15, 2011 issue of The Bozone:

Defining True Wealth: Priceless Traditions

This spring I was invited to a branding on my friends’ ranch.   Brandings typically involve gatherings of family, friends and neighbors - weekends of work weaving community into the heart of the event.   Friends from near and far joined together; John from Alaska shared salmon he caught himself, Mary Jo’s mom brought her famous hand-cured pickles, and Andrea who now lives in LA introduced her new boyfriend. 

Brandings remind me of the time I spent in Mexico’s Copper Canyon leading trips with Outward Bound.  The now-famed indigenous Tarajumara share similar practices, inviting friends from hundreds of miles away to work events (and yes, they run these distances).  Communal plantings, harvestings, or house raisings involve debaucherous parties with tesquino (corn beer), the necessary work comingled with the best of social gatherings.

Rained out of the mushroom collecting we planned the day after branding, we shared stories by the fire.   Lindsey told us about the 10-day process her grandmother takes to make her pickles, and we joked about how her grandfather guards the secrets of his hand-smoked sausage.  We agreed it would be shame if they never pass on their wealth of knowledge.   

As these shrinking pockets of culture living close to the land dwindle, with them we lose vast amounts of information and kinship humankind developed over millions of years.  Our planetary population nearing 7 billion (up from 1 billion just 100 years ago), large-scale productions increasingly drive our economy.  To live sustainably, real wealth must also be measured in traditions, lest we lose gifts like the pickle recipe brought to Montana from Wisconsin…and before then all the way back to the time cucumber first met dill and everyone aged their own vinegar in wooden barrels - and took the time to talk about it.   

Preserving the land itself is vital.  Walking around the ranch, we came across wild alliums (onion family), munching on spring garlic leaves and fresh scapes while contemplating the richness found in land that we hardly acknowledge in our mass focus on Wall Street, trading stocks and investing in “futures” without a real grounding to what lies beneath our very feet - dirt.   That is, if we are still lucky enough to have soil to step on.  I often talk with my friends about their efforts to move the whole ranch toward eco-friendly practices and the inhibiting challenges of doing this with a large-scale operation.  

The market drives economics – but what drives the market?  Us.  All of Us. How do we drive our whole system to value vital practices?  How do I make the time in my busy schedule to take a long weekend to help with a branding?   I make the time.  I grow a garden.  I buy local food and organic clothing.  I operate with eco-friendly business practices whenever I can on my new-business budget.  I write this column discussing green topics.  I study ancient healing arts, understanding that true health involves our natural relationship to the Earth.  I connect with others who are helping to bring our planet into balance - hoping to ignite a fire for enough people to care and take action to make a difference.   Ahem.

Jenny LePage is a massage therapist and owner of Bozeman Massage Therapy LLC, an eco-friendly business downtown.  She can be reached via www.bozemanmassagetherapy.com.