Viv proudly posing with her composter
Ok, in the interest of full disclosure from the outset, I must confess. Viviane Breazeale, our first Bluegrass Believer, is not just any believer that we happened to select first. Viv Breazeale is my mom. But really, when it comes to identifying role models and personal heroes, can you really start with anyone else? Not in my book. But putting my filial bias aside, there’s much more to her significance than her obvious genetic contribution to my existence.
Viv would never single herself out as to deserve a title such as a Bluegrass Believer. In fact, she’d adamantly insist that she in no way qualifies. And yet, in so many ways, that’s one of the very reasons she fits the bill. She isn’t leading the charge on sustainable initiatives. She isn’t banging down doors of legislators, demanding that they amend their ways. She isn’t even likely to label her own actions as conscious statements of her stewardship to the earth. But that just exemplifies the fact that her actions are not intended to impress others, or to be fashionable and noteworthy. They, instead, come from her heart and simply reflect her principles.
Viv has been an active gardener her whole life – a skill she learned from her own mother who tended a garden since her childhood in France. She grew up eating fresh produce and didn’t think twice about ensuring the same luxury to her own children, even when that meant forging a plot in a gravelly patch in downtown Lexington, flanked on either side by parking lots. From this she produced all sorts of vegetative wonders, including tomatoes, sugar snap peas, and spinach. She also used her garden to grow more exotic treats that she couldn’t reliably find locally, such a tender haricot verts (not to be confused with green beans!), edamame, and even fresh black-eyed peas.
I can say from experience, that it was always a joy to sit down to meals with their roots nurtured by her garden, and we relished the trumpeting of the gardening season each year when the trays of tomato seedlings were precariously balanced on every windowsill in the house.
But it must be said that Viv does not simply garden. Her every action in this space comes from an innate love of her plants. She coddles each seedling, checking their status daily, and mentally noting which plants could need further attention. No surprise then, she defends them with shocking ferocity, sitting for hours in the hot sun scanning for tiny weedlings to pull or aphids to squish. I don’t think it would ever occur to her to use chemicals on herbeloved plants – much better to protect them with adoration. The same can be said with fertilizer.
In fact, while she never preached the gospel of organic, she’s been a devoted follower her whole life – routinely making the pilgrimage to the horse park to shovel her minivan full of rotted horse manure. It was just the best way to do it. And why wouldn’t her plants get the best?
Yet, while Viv would certain admit to her devotion to her garden, she is actually committed to a much larger truth. She believes in the sanctity of our earth and the need to protect it and conserve its precious resources so that they can be savored eternally. This belief is in the marrow of her bones, not in the axioms of her brain, and it echoes throughout.
It’s the reason she faithfully shuts off the water unless absolutely required (she can do an entire load of dishes on one small bowlful).
It’s the reason that the only customized piece of furniture in her kitchen is a huge, stand alone wooden box to collect recyclables; and yes, she’ll root through the trash with bare hands, past slime and grit, if someone inadvertently tosses a #2 plastic!
It’s also the reason that she became a convert only in the last two years to the composting movement. You need only to see this woman trudging through the snow and ice in the depth of winter with a bucketful of coffee grounds to add, or watch her hoist her entire body weight into a 70+ gallon composter, filled to the brim with scraps and grass clippings to aerate the compost thoroughly, in order to testify to her dedication.
While each of these efforts and tasks may seem rather ordinary, and in fact they’re shockingly simple, their combined effects bear witness to the impact that one person can have.
Viv won’t single-handedly reverse global warming. But she’ll certainly do her share.
Not only will the earth be a little happier as a result, but we can also find joy and resolve through her inspiration.
Comments on this entry are closed.