Unconventional Wisdom: A Talking Blog by Steve Saenz

600 Gallons of Fresh Milk (aka, Our Job as Communicators is to Plant Seeds)

7/25/2012

Janisse Ray (click to enlarge)

"Language that does not lead beyond the literal can inform but it cannot move us. Metaphor baffles the left brain and allows us to reach beyond the literal; beyond the limits of logical language. Metaphor gives us a glimpse of something worth caring about." ~ Janisse Ray

I had the good fortune of "meeting" Janisse Ray today thanks to Georgia Organics' Facebook page. This remarkable woman, who hails from south Georgia, speaks and writes far more eloquently than me so it is best that I let the videos on this page do the talking. Let me just say that Janisse Ray made me think today ─ about the power of metaphors and stories ─ about the importance of planting seeds.

ABOUT JANISSE RAY

Writer, naturalist and activist Janisse Ray is author of four books of literary nonfiction and a collection of nature poetry. She is on the faculty of Chatham University’s low-residency MFA program and is a Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow. She holds an MFA from the University of Montana, and in 2007 was awarded an honorary doctorate from Unity College in Maine.

Ecology of a Cracker Childhood, a memoir about growing up on a junkyard in the ruined longleaf pine ecosystem of the Southeast, was published by Milkweed Editions in 1999. Besides being a plea to protect and restore the glorious pine flatwoods of the South, the book looks hard at family, mental illness, poverty, and fundamentalist religion. Essayist Wendell Berry called the book “well done and deeply moving.” Anne Raver of The New York Times said of Janisse Ray, “The forests of the South find their Rachel Carson.”

Part I - The Power of Metaphor by Janisse Ray