D2_Agraria_Journal_21_OPT

I love volunteering at Agraria because it gives me the perfect opportunity to engage in something that is found- ationally important to me: “reskilling,” or helping folks to re-access their embodied knowledge of how to do things, how to resist “the great forgetting” that is so foundational to capitalism. In David Foster Wallace’s famous commencement speech at Kenyon in 2005, he spoke of the value of real education as “not being about the capacity to think, but rather about the choice of what to think about,” of “adjusting our default setting” beyond our self centered realities and being aware of what is “real and essential.” What I love about sharing reskilling workshops at Agraria is using these opportunities as tools for mindfulness and community-building. One of the consequences of the specialization trend and monetization of the economy is that skills that were once common among the general population, skills that by their nature contributed to a sense of community, skills that could not be accomplished without thought and intention, are now shared by few. Reskilling brings deep satisfaction. It is empowering for many reasons. I love the feeling of connection I get when I mend, knit, make baskets, dye, save seeds, ferment, preserve, do natural building, etc. And then I also love the meditative nature of reskilling, the mindfulness and the non-linear, “kairos” aspect of slowing down and being present. During the summer of 2020, when it was so challenging to gather, it was gratifying to have been invited to harvest milky oats with Miller Fellow students and Agraria volunteers, bending over together in the oat fields, harvesting by hand, watching the hand-scything of the field afterward, and then in the afternoon making milky oat tincture with a group of interested folks. Similarly, I felt a powerful sense of connection to the past, present, future and my place in all of it when building the cob oven and benches that now grace the front campus at Agraria. While digging a large two-foot-deep hole for the foundation of the oven, we unearthed many powerful examples of the skills of those who have gone before: hand-forged horseshoes, hand-hewn nails, a crowbar, and bits of a coal hod among other things. Stomping the cool clay, sand, water and straw together with our bare feet to make the cob grounded me mindfully in the present, and in working with so many wonderful young people on this project, I sensed the joyful future as well. The word “share” is an important component of reskilling. It is all about peer-to-peer sharing and lifting each other up. I love the intergenerationality of it. I love seeing my children teach themselves and others skills that they have relearned. Last summer my son and a friend taught themselves how to tan sheep hides. My daughter has taught herself multiple woodworking skills and is especially attracted to the old ways and tools of this profession. My daughter-in- law amazes me with her handwork skills. Phillip Barnes describes reskilling as “the acquisition of skills essential to satisfy basic needs in a localized and carbon-constrained future…a process, ongoing and never- ending, that evolves as conditions change and contexts change. It is first and foremost a community-oriented method….While one can learn reskilling by watching a video or reading a book, it is the face-to-face interactions that build community…where a talented and knowledgeable individual or group teaches other people what they know.” The old barn at Agraria offers such a beautiful space for this community-building. I think Arthur Morgan had all of this in mind when he founded Community Solutions, then called Community Service. Reskilling encompasses both “service” and “solutions,” and I am glad I have found a reskilling home here, at Agraria. Beth Bridgeman is Associate Professor of Cooperative Education at Antioch College and a regular volunteer at Agraria. AMY HARPER Beth Bridgeman and Marianthe Bickett fired up Agraria's cob oven for the first time in May for a staff pizza party. They oven was built last year as part of a workshop led by Bridgeman with assistance from Bickett. AGRARIA JOURNAL 2021 37 Building community through reskilling BY BETH BRIDGEMAN