Seedfolks (Paul Fleischman,1997) is the subject of my community observation. I read this story many years ago and revisited it and the important sense of community became a recurring theme for me during my reading this time. Below I share excerpts that particularly touched me and touched on the heart of a community garden that once was a vacant lot. Fleischman tells the story through the perspectives of Kim, Wendell, Anna, Gonzalo, Leona, Sam, Virgil, Sae Young, Curtis, Nora, Maricela, Amir and Florence who all become involved in the planting of a community garden where a vacant, trash-strewn lot used to be. Their perspectives and experiences commingle as the seeds they plant in this communal space.
Although this place is fictional, it is real in the sense of the power of place and transforming places literally and figuratively that can change our perspectives in how we see and relate to one another.
Kim, nine years old, grew up in Vietnam and lives in Cleveland with her mother. Her father recently passed away:
My class had sprouted lima beans in paper cups the year before. I now placed a bean in each of the holes. I covered them up pressing the soil down firmly with my fingertips. I opened my thermos and watered them all . And I vowed to myself that those beans would thrive.
Field Dependent learning-growing lima bean seeds in the dirt because they reminded her of her father how was a farmer was more meaningful than growing beans in plastic cups in school with no connection to her life. (p. 3)
Ana
This spring I looked out and saw something strange.Down in the lot, a little black-haired girl, hiding behind that refrigerator. She was working at the dirt and looking around suspiciously all the time. Then I realized. She was burying something.......she was mixed up in something she shouldn't be. And after twenty years for the Parole department, I just about knew what she' buried. Drugs most likely, or money, or a gun....Then I saw her there the next morning, and decided to solve this case myself......[several days later]. Then I took an old butter knife and my cane and hobbled down all three flights of stairs. I worked my way through that awful jungle of junk and finally came to her spot...I hacked and dug, but didn't find anything except for a large white bean. I tried a new spot and found another, then a third. Then the truth of it slapped me full in the face...Two beans had roots. I know I'd done them harm. I felt like I'd read through her secret diary and had ripped out a page without meaning to. I laid those beans right back in the ground, as gently as sleeping babies. Then I patted the soil as much as could be.
The next morning she was back [Kim]. She reached a hand into her schoolbag. Then she pulled out a jar, unscrewed the lid, and poured water onto the ground. (p. 7-8)
"We don't see things as they are; we see them as we are"-Anais Nin
Wendell, a school janitor, was told by Anna about the lima bean plants and that they are in need of water so goes out to inspect the progress of the plants. Kim is by the old refrigerator preparing to water her lima bean plants when she is startled by Wendell. They do not speak.Â
Out of nowhere the words from the Bible came into my head: "And a little child shall lead them." I didn't know why at first. Then I did. There's plenty about my life I can't change. Can't bring the dead back to life on this earth. Can't make the world loving and kind. Can't change myself into a millionaire. But a patch of ground in this trashy lot - I can change that. Can change it big. Better to put my time into that than moaning about the other all day That little grammar-school girl showed me that.
The lot had buildings on three sides. I walked around and picked myself out a spot that wouldn't be shaded too much. I dragged the garbage off to the side and tossed out the the biggest pieces of broken glass. I looked over my plot, squatted down, and fingered the soil awhile. That Monday I bought a shovel home from work. (p. 12)