Fragments From Floyd

The following is from a short piece entitled "Why I Write Essays" by Wendell Berry.

..."When one receives a divine gift, one must be glad of it; one must be grateful for it; and one must take good care of it.

The obligation of giving care, of returning stewardship for divine gifts, calls us to be responsible heirs of other parts of our cultural birthright; it calls us to be good artists. I use the word in its fullest and most correct sense. The arts are ways of making, not only the works of the so-called "fine arts," but also all the other things we need: I mean the arts of food-growing, cooking, clothing, building, and so on.

To make things in a way that answers the requirements of good stewardship, we need both good artistry and considerable breadth of mind. It requires a mind that is at least broad enough to recognize its own ignorance and to make the appropriate compensations. The broad-minded stewardly artist works close to home or lives close to work, is neighborly and humble, is concerned always to limit the potential damages of ignorance by limiting the scale of work."...