Why should we fear to be crushed by savage elements, We who are made up of the same elements?
Emerson

I have been very disturbed by ominous forecasts of the mess we'll have to face if we do not take steps to preserve the ecology and tidy up our internet conduits. It won't be long now before communication gets all tangled from overload and when that day arrives, companies won't be able to communicate properly to one another. Our supermarket shelves will be empty because of a million viruses that infect their ordering programs and we could very well starve in the midst of plenty!

I was determined to outwit these computer snafus by growing my own organic produce on my patio, last spring. I built a five foot square box in my backyard and started filling it with compost. Instead of grinding food waste in the disposal or putting papers in the trash, I dumped them in the box and let it all rot into good rich loam. Each morning I found a great deal of this organic material strewn across the cement and during the night, I was often awakened by strange howls and clattering noises. But that didn't disturb me. After all, the little critters that crept out after sunset lived in my world, too. If they were hungry, let them eat!

After a few months, the odor that emanated from the box was so intense that when the ocean breeze accelerated, my neighbors bombarded our sewage department with angry complaints. I knew that I was taking steps to save us all in the terrible crisis technology would create and so I ignored their short sightedness and continued filling the box with good, fecal material. By summer I was ready for the first planting. I covered the pungent soil with burlap and planted a crop of potatoes to give it nitrogen and other nutrients. A few weeks later, I started bush beans, cauliflower, broccoli, several varieties of lettuce and two tomato plants. As the months went by, I added turnips, carrots, radishes and peas. I would have plenty to last until grocery shipments could be resumed and even have surplus to save the very neighbors who were so angry at me now. They didn't know it, but it wouldn't be long before they were faced with imminent starvation because of their lack of foresight.

I was careful to keep my garden pure and free from poisonous sprays, or artificial additives. I had heard horror stories about the subversive way commercial farmers injected tomatoes with nitrogen gas and added harmful dye to carrots to paint them a tempting orange. "The trouble with our modern society is that we want everything to look gorgeous before we buy it," snarled my friend Louise, whose family was a charter member of the Sierra Club. "Nutritious vegetables are not always pretty, but they taste good and give our body vitamins and minerals to build up our immune systems."

"Is that why I get so many winter colds?" I asked.

"It certainly is!" said Louise. "All that garbage in the supermarket is nothing but fake food to exercise your teeth."

"Good Lord!" I exclaimed. "It certainly costs enough!"

She nodded, her face tight with fury. "The America public is raped without mercy by giant corporations! It is the scandal of our era!"

That topic was far too complicated to discuss in a supermarket line so I just piled all my counterfeit vegetables and cosmetically bloated fruit on the counter to be tabulated and I blushed with shame. My money was financing this food fraud on the American People.

I respect my body and I try to do my best for it. After all, we are what we eat and I resolved not to be duped by appearances any longer. In my little garden, there would be nothing to hurt any living thing, including the tiny critters who fed on my soil. I noted with a suppressed flutter of resentment that those same sweet living things who foraged through discarded compost, gorged themselves on my lettuce, cauliflower and tomatoes as well.

Despite their carnage, I was able to harvest a lovely dinner for myself in September of 2005 that would build my body into something strong and beautiful. I gathered cauliflower, browned and bitten by muskrats, tomatoes, partially digested by aphids and snails, lettuce that looked like green lace and two zucchini the neighborhood dog missed.

I'd have a very nice salad even if God's little creatures didn't save me enough for a main course. I chopped up what I had and gently brushed away the beetles and darling little inch worms I discovered taking siestas in my lettuce. I supplemented my own organic produce with onions, peppers and garlic from the Farmer's Market, sprinkled it with vinegar and sat down to a fresh nutritiously pure salad.

It was an exciting moment.

I put my napkin in my lap, picked up my fork and paused, amazed at what was happening to my dinner. The greens on my plate had begun to move.

They swayed across the plate in a sedate tango and sort of rippled as if they were considering a cha cha cha. The tomatoes bounced a bit and then the radishes did an unmistakable pirouette. I was astonished. I had expected this salad to enrich my body, but I never dreamed it would entertain me as well.

I jumped up from the table and turned on the stereo to an old recording of "Jealousy." The zucchini appeared to clasp a piece of garlic to its heart and the lettuce picked up its skirts and pointed its ragged toes.

It was a charming scene and I couldn't wait to share my surprise with Louise. I called her on the telephone, and when she answered, I said, "Louise! I have just made my first organic salad! You must come over to see it!"

"Should I bring my fork?" she asked.

"No, no," I said. "Just a baton . . .and be sure to wear comfortable shoes!"

Speak to the earth
And it shall teach thee to dance.
The Bible according to Lynn Ruth
LYNN RUTH
www.lynnruthmiller.com
Check out my blog at www.beingisseeking.blogspot.com