The Hidden Wound

"The Hidden Wound," by Wendell Berry Wendell Berry searches through the beginnings of American history, for the root cause of our current challenges, and discoveries a hidden and festering wound. He finds that no matter how rich or poor we each may be, we likely carry a manifestation of this wound. The symptoms include ecological illiteracy, pollution and climate change, water and food shortages, civil and international unrest, as well as economic decline. "The Hidden Wound" points, not only to the cause of these current issues, but the path we can take towards healing. This book is both enlightening and easy to read. I highly recommend it.

Wow, Wendell Berry wrote this book when he was only 34. At the Wisconsin Book Festival, Rick Bass said it was his favorite Wendell Berry book. It is an amazing chronicle of a man looking honestly at his beliefs and his culture regarding racism and trying to wipe away the cob webs and face the real life effects on blacks and whites alike. This book was published in 1970 and I don't think our culture has yet faced the "wound" as Berry tries to in this book as illustrated by the reaction to Barack Obama's "Racism" speech. By chance the next book I picked up to read is a compilation of essays about the state of America, "These United States: Original Essays by Leading American Writers on Their State Within the Union" edited by John Leonard. The first essay is by Diane McWhorter as she discusses these same issues in present day Alabama. It is subtitled "The Past is Still Not Past". I highly recommend it as a continuation of the issues discussed in "The Hidden Wound".

Wendell Berry, English professor at the University of Kentucky and farmer of his family's farm in Kentucky, comes to grips with the burden of being the descendent of slave owners. Like so many white Americans, he wants racism to end and does not want to pass either the guilt or the racism on to the next generations. Here he tries to address the many complex issues of racism in this country. People of all races will be engaged by his fine writing and sensitivity. You might want to look at some of his other books as well. Fidelity is a series of gracious short stories exploring the relationships between individuals and families in a small Kentucky town called Port William. He has picked up this theme in several other books as well. He is well known for his poetry which is published in collections and in another one of my favorites, Sabbath.