The Habit of Turning the World Upside Down by Howard Mansfield

Author:Howard Mansfield
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: NATURE / Environmental Conservation & Protection
ISBN: 9780872332713
Publisher: Bauhan Publishing
Published: 2018-10-18T16:00:00+00:00

A stranger has come to town. He has suitcases full of money. He wants your land. Will you sell? Does everyone have a price? Is everything for sale—every last piece of land, every rock, mineral, pond, and mountain? Around kitchen tables, families divide: sell or don’t sell? And then your neighbor sells—he may be your nephew or the cousin you grew up with—and now he’s estranged. There’s a new stranger in town.

Strangers’ money has drawn a line across the land, sowing discord. It has divided the Placey family. They no longer talk to those who sold out. “We pleaded with them; we asked them not to sell,” says Lynne. But they wouldn’t listen; they wanted the money. Her sister-in-law is distraught. Lynne was close to her nieces; she can’t believe that they would do this. “It just breaks my heart to see these kids toss away the Placey land,” she says.

This division is repeated all over town, straining the North Country ethic of looking out for your neighbor. I talked with people who were painfully sorting it out: He’s my neighbor—I’ve known him my whole life—but selling to Northern Pass is a grievous wound. I won’t shun him on the street, but I’ll avoid his business if I can. They mention David Hicks, who owns Hicks Hardware on Main Street in Colebrook. He had a sign against Northern Pass in the window, but then he sold his land. Talk of boycotting his business was quickly put down—that wasn’t the North Country way. One of his friends went to him, in private, and said: How could you do that? It was despair beyond anger, the bitter taste of disappointment that parents sometimes feel. You know better than that, don’t you?

There’s nothing left to say. It’s a difference of belief. Land is an asset; land is allegiance. That’s two different units of measure: money and devotion. What is land worth? What is love worth? Families debated, talking past each other as if they were speaking different languages. Love and money, and love of money. Try having a calm family discussion about that. How do you answer when your brother says, “This place is who I am—how can we sell it?”

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