Images for Wendell Berry
I attended my first North Side business meeting in Anderson in Sep this past year. I sat for quite a while and listened while the Meyor Ockomon and some local buisnes owners discussed possibilities. The general question was, how can we get our community interested in the local social and financial economy. The mayor seemed general interested and wanted to know what they needed. There were ideas of street cleaning, new lights and they brainstormed ideas on marketing coupons and such. They talked about pride for their community. Towards the end of the meeting I was reminded of being at Butler University and hearing Wendell Berry speak. I have read many of his books and love his ideas on Social economics. He speaks on farm conservation issues and protecting resources. He encourages learners to take what they have learned back to their community and share with them. The basic idea is buy local, support your community and care about the environment in which you live. That night I asked the Mayor what it might take to get a guy like Berry to come speak in Anderson. They were unsure how to make this happen but were genuinely excited to try and find out. In the past several month I have been meeting with people from Anderson’s economic development offices and have decided to try and create a book of photos and brief stories to send to Mr. Berry first as a tribute to his writings and also has an invitation to come and speak here in Anderson. In this project I am including some of Anderson’s local business and organizations that have invested their hearts, time, and money into making a community a place worth living in. I will be posting photos and stories from my journey through this project here periodically. This particular image is from a place called the Mercy house. They have taken an old school house that could have easily fallen pray to vandalism and turned it into a place of refuge for it’s community.
2 years ago