World of Wonder

Researchers and experts tell us that for more than 40 percent of the world’s people, rice is a dietary staple. Grown under varying conditions in more than 100 different countries, the rice fields in Northern Vietnam offer evidence of special feats in human agricultural achievement. Because nearly three-quarters of the country is covered by hills and mountains, the cultivation of rice relies on terraces carved by the hands and tools of its people. The process of constructing them was arduous and involved not only physical endurance to carve the stepped terraces out of heavy soil and rock, but determining where underground water could be located.

I look at this image and wonder about this worker’s ancestors. Did they live to see the results of their hard labor? Were they paid wages, or even provided food and housing? Did they dream of being free to choose a different profession or of becoming famously admired—Western thoughts, to be sure. My hope—if nothing more—is that they never once thought rice might become tossed at weddings and not retrieved, causing harm to wildlife and wasteful), or thrown away uneaten as happens so often with much of our unwanted food in the United States.

But let us turn our thoughts from dire to devoted. In the concentric circles emanating from the movements of this person in the watery field are the valor of performing a task with skill and integrity. There are the workers of centuries dedicated to nourishing the country’s people. There is the fluidity of immersing oneself in an environment and respecting the fertility of soil and the unearned gift of water. I am inspired by devotion to providing for others and blessed to witness a world filled with wonder.