A Kindred Spirit

I have always been proud to be a Nebraskan, but perhaps never more so than while reading Willa Cather. A friend recently re-introduced me to her works. A native Nebraskan, she wrote about life on the prairie at the turn of the century. She too grew up in a rural community. Her books, historical fiction laced with characters which I'm told were often real (names were changed, presumably to keep from directly offending those being described), are of the age old struggle for life and livelihood. They're the stories of immigrants arriving on the Nebraska plains, battling harsh weather, stubborn land, and reality that was far from what they'd left behind. Stories of perseverance, hope, stubbornness, sometimes death, and always an appreciation for the lessons of the land....

In Cather I experience kinship. The joy of someone who understands my love for this place where I was born. She writes about big sky and endless fields, about the nearness of neighbors (emotionally more than geographically), and the camaraderie of those who pioneered. They lived life together--fought for it, actually--and in so doing, became to each other community. That is what I feel...a sense of oneness, of at homeness, of being part of something that is beyond our control.

"When I strike the open plains, something happens. I'm home. I breathe differently. That love of great spaces, of rolling open country like the sea--it's the great passion of my life." Willa Cather

It's one of my passions, certainly not the passion. And I highly recommend "My Antonia" and "O Pioneers" if you're looking for a good read....