A review by leviofmichigan
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer

5.0

There are a lot of things I could say about this book, all positive, but I'll just say that it reminded me a lot of the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh, particularly when she talked about looking at things and seeing all the things that went into them, such as looking at our clothes and seeing the materials that went into them from the plants that grew to make them, and the laborers, and the transport, and all the rest. And really, when you start to think that way, you can connect almost everything; you start to see the web of things that exists around us like a family, nurturing us. Well, if you've read even one book by Thich Nhat Hanh, you're familiar with this, as he calls it, "interbeing." Of course, as she notes, the idea becomes less romantic and certainly more distant when we think about, well, what you're using to read these words. Computers, phones, plastic--where the heck does all of that come from? Well, she talks about it. And she talks about the issues that arise with that distance from origination to consumer. It's refreshing to see religion and spirituality at their best in works like this one. When they're not used to perpetuate existing power dynamics (cough cough my White Evangelical upbringing yuppp), but instead to call out the ways we ignore the humanity of others and ignore the worth of our non-human relatives on this earth, they are such a force for good. Speaking of, I loved when the author spoke about taking a group of southern college students out on sort of a nature expedition, and, after she spoke very eloquently about what surrounded them, a student asked, "is this like your religion?" Robin Wall Kimmerer says that, at the time, she essentially answered, "no, I just love [this and that and the other thing about the natural world]." But, in hindsight, she says, "I wish I had just said 'yes.'" I hope I can be the kind of person whose religion is everything around me. Because we can never know if G-d exists--I usually believe They do, but everything can be explained away. But we can know that we exist, and that the spider making a web in the corner exists, and that the trees outside my window exist, and if I die, and you die, and if all things come to their end, and there is truly nothing after this, it was still worth it. To treat others with kindness and to honor the rest of the beings and non-human people in this universe, by being mindful of what we ask of them and being grateful for all they give us--that is real, even if the sun burns us up tomorrow, and there is nothing left of us.

Great book, worth a read