Cross the Great Divide

"Instead of grandiose worship music, we sing hymns that emphasize gratitude: 'All I have heeded Thy hand hath provided.' We sing in four-part harmony, with the men breaking into baritone or bass, and the women into alto and soprano. It is an unexpected intimacy to listen to one another and to shape our voices so they fit together. These hymns take more work than the worship music. A curious side effect of all the effort is that the hymns take on a three-dimensional auditory shape, and the sum of our voices hangs in the air, suspended inside the sanctuary."

(page 204)

Book review, Title American Harvest, Author Marie Mutsuki Mockett, Rating 5.0,

American Harvest Marie Mutsuki Mockett Book review

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In sixth grade music class, we spent some time on songs of Oregon, our home state. One was The Oregon Trail, which includes the line 'Cross the Great Divide, side by side we'll ride,' which might also articulate the theme of this wonderful book, with its emphasis on bridging differences in culture and place, particularly that of city and country.

The author, a city dweller, and her family own from afar a medium-sized wheat farm in Nebraska, whose grain is harvested every year by Eric Wohlgemuth and his team. Eric’s crew of Anabaptist farmers employ their combines to harvest the grain for small and medium-sized farms, farms who cannot afford the complex equipment needed for harvest. Grain ripens later at higher latitudes, so the crew starts in Texas and follows the harvests up to Idaho or Canada.

Eric invites her to accompany them on their journey. She participates in the field work, befriending some of the crew, together attending church and exploring the local communities that host them. The author provides a detailed and adventurous account of the close-knit life of the crew and draws a vivid and rich description of many aspects of farming today in America and of some of the those who live the life.

She also makes a heart-felt attempt to cross the divide between country and city, between various religious beliefs, and between various ethnicities. Mockett, who is half-Japanese and half white, finds her own ethnicity a useful lens through which to view each community she encounters, from German farmers to Native Americans, or the rare Asian in the rural farming communities they visit.

The author’s open and curious approach is welcomed by many but not all she encounters, both among the crew and within the communities they pass through. The tone throughout is sympathetic, often contemplative, with bursts of real passion. She paints sensitive portraits of the land. This book far exceeded my expectations.

Notes

1. The requisite verse from the song The Oregon Trail is:

"Hurry up, old pioneer, keep movin',
Your faithful little band must never fail,
Cross the Great Divide, side by side we'll ride,
Down the Oregon Trail."