"Do unto those downstream as you would have those upstream do unto you" ~ Wendell Berry

At the tender age of 24, Wendell Berry, a promising student of English literature, earned a prized fellowship in creative writing, and went to study under the mentorship of Wallace Stegner alongside the likes of Tillie Olsen and other up-and-coming writers. At  the riper age of 28, he landed a coveted job leading toward the acme of academic achievement and began a heralded career teaching English at New York University. Colleagues readily recognized his talent and were eager to watch him grow and blossom through the years.

But just two years later, Berry gave up life in the big city and returned to his Kentucky home, near the land which his ancestors had farmed for five generations and to which, it became clear, his soul and spirit were bound.

Berry was born of the land, a true son of Kentucky and the Ohio River, and it was the land about which he was to write for the rest of his long life.

And we are all the richer for it. He wrote of his love of farmers, farming, families and the land. And of his pain at seeing all of that whither or be degraded by negligence at best and excessive appetite and greed at worst.

Berry died this past August 31, 2026 – leaving a large void in the rarefied gallery of land      champions. But the good news is that he left a broad legacy of writings (poetry, essays, novels, speeches) – blessed by his fluent and fluid pen – that continues to stir and inspire his vast readership to embrace the gifts of the land, to love it and care for it.

For Berry was above all an advocate (some might say a prophet)– one who walked the walk of stewarding the land and challenged us to do the same. And he gave us a blueprint for how to do it:

“We must acknowledge that creation is full of mystery; that we will never entirely understand it. We must abandon arrogance  and stand in awe of nature. We must recover the sense of the majesty of creation, and the ability to be worshipful in its presence. For I do not doubt that it is only on the condition of humility and reverence before the world that our species will be able to remain in it.”

Berry was a religious man in his own way. He turned to the world and its wonders to fill him up and soothe his soul.

Showing reverence to land, soil, the earth as a whole, he calls upon us to respond with action.

“We have lived by the assumption that what was good for us would be good for the world. ... We have been wrong. We must change our lives, so that it will be possible to live by the contrary assumption that what is good for the world will be good for us. . . We must recover the sense of the majesty of the creation and the ability to be worshipful in its presence." (Quote from the book The Long-Legged House)

In his overalls, with his drawl, and from his 12x16 foot cabin (called long-legged house, which had no plumbing or electricity), Wendell Berry addressed the world. And a bunch of the world came to listen.

Now is a good time for us to reclaim his writings, read more, listen harder and work to establish harmony with the land as Berry continues to urge us to do.

Photo Credit - Guy Mendes

Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin is a community rabbi who works at the intersection of faith and sustainability. She is chair of the Jewish community's Baltimore Environmental Sustainability Network and immediate past chair of Waterkeepers Chesapeake.