A Unity With The Soil
2007 August 13
I have blisters on my hands and my shoulder is killing me.
It is the most pleasant pain that I have experienced in years.
Why?
For the last few hours, I have been working the Sicilian soil….raking, pulling weeds,doing landscaping on the new villa.
As the hot Sicilian sun beats on my body and as sweats drips from my brow, I think of two men who once did the same thing as I: My grandfathers Alfio Zappala and Gaetano Torrisi.
They too once worked the soil here…toiling in the hills of Trecastagni as teenagers…working as laborers for the rich vegetable growers of Catania….
I take a handful of the fertile soil and put it to my nose.
The bouquet is intoxicating…rich…fertile….the bounty of Etna….
As my back aches and the sweat blinds my vision, I work harder, faster….the sun beats on my naked torso….
Here I am….in America I pay people to do exactly what I am doing….killing myself…and loving every second of it.
I stop to admire my work: Five huge mounds of clippings ready to be removed…only another 15 or so and my work will be done…..
The sun is hot…I have visions of millenia of workers toiling the fields……strangely, I feel a connection…a spiritual connection with them today…..
Yes, I love the pain…the blisters….On Wednesday I will go to the Piano Fiori…the garden center…and choose two trees…maybe a fig tree this year….I am not sure yet…..
Then I will labor again…planting in the beloved soil what countless spirits now departed once did…..
The hot Sicilian sun …heals the spirit, I think.
