Recipes for Reciprocity by Gavin Mounsey

refreshment for the soul in color, flavor and texture

I ‘met’ Gavin on Charles Eisenstein’s comment thread and have been grateful ever since. I recently posted there that he was a prime example of tonic masculinity, a term I coined as the healing version of manliness, not gender-neutral but gender-positive. My classic example of tonic masculinity would be Wendell Berry, another farmer-poet. This is my favorite of his poems, and you’ll see why it’s not just prescient for our times but celebrates the masculine in service to the woman in service to the child:

Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front

Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.
And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery
any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
and shut away in a little drawer.
When they want you to buy something
they will call you. When they want you
to die for profit they will let you know.

So, friends, every day do something
that won’t compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.
Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.

Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millenium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.
Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.

Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.
Listen to carrion – put your ear
close, and hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.
Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?

Go with your love to the fields.
Lie down in the shade. Rest your head
in her lap. Swear allegiance
to what is nighest your thoughts.
As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn’t go. Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.

~Wendell Berry

---

But unlike the incomparable Wendell, Gavin doesn’t just paint pictures with words, he also takes pictures of astonishing beauty. There’s a quality to his micro-focused photos of dew that make me feel like my eyes have been washed. Whether they are photos he’s taken himself or found, they’re each a treat of pure visual juice, for a thirst you didn’t know you had. And each is intertwined with deep knowledge that teaches me words like ‘trophic’ and ‘rhizobium’ for the connections between all things. Come back to this post when you’re finished reading mine and click … just click … you won’t be sorry.

Earth Teach Me

And beauty, for Gavin, includes the functional and the delicious. I’ve pre-ordered his book, Recipes for Reciprocity, as a wedding present for my oldest daughter and her husband, who is another great example of tonic masculinity. As my middle daughter is known to exclaim, “And he built you a fence!” followed by a sigh. Handy, creative, protective, mostly uncomplaining ;-)

I can’t put Gavin’s spirit into words better than he can, so I’ll end with the first couple paragraphs to his book:

In the following pages you will find recipes for much more than just creating food. You will find recipes for nourishing soil, relationships (with each other and the Earth), ways to nourish community and increase our collective resilience as we head towards what appears to be an uncertain future. I will also provide recipes for regenerating our hope, recipes for rekindling a sense of purpose, recipes for reciprocating the many blessings we have received and continue to receive and recipes for food for the soul.

Each moment is an unrepeatable gift, each breath an unfathomable miracle of celestial mathematics, molecular biophysics and a symphony of intricate symbiotic relationships. It took eons of tireless work for the stage to be set for you to live here, now, in this life. Mother Earth has nurtured and built a paradise and a sanctuary for you to experience, co-create in and share.

Come for the sanctuary, stay for the amaranth.

---

In this older video, I read the Wendell Berry poem along with song lyrics from the Hu. The Divine Feminine on Jordan Peterson:

Instead of women paid equally to serve investor profits, should men be liberated to serve family and community? I examine whether women even existed in government, economics or religion for the past 5000 years. I address Job and the Leviathan as a metaphor for Jordan's recent ordeals and query the missing feminine in the Trinity. I look at how divorce courts turn the family home into a dead asset, acknowledging an astute listener question on Russell's community newsletter. I end with two nods to the feminine divine: The HU's Song of Women and Wendall Berry's Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front.

and for some reason, this seems related—Meaning Is All There Is:

A viewer warned his loved ones that he was putting my 'crazy' in his echo chamber. To live up to the warning, I bring on the crazy by talking about ultimate reality with Sufi sayings, Jewish legends, free-will astrologer Rob Brezsny and Terence McKenna. I tell the story of a mole turned hawk, and Russell Brand kissing Yuval Noah Harari's forehead. I cite Kurt Vonnegut's 'karass' in the disorganized religion of Bokonon and quote Caitlin Johnstone on being ineffable. I end with a simpler explanation of Charles Eisenstein's Parallel Timelines and my craziest theory to date, involving the word 'tantric'.