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Blogs by Niki Collins-Queen
A Simple life on a Georgia Pond
11/9/2010 4:32:29 PM
Amy Blackmarr's memoir “Going to Ground: Simple Life on a Georgia Pond” is a captivating story about the five years she lived in her grandfather's remote 1920s fishing shack beside a small Georgia pond. She reflects on her solitary life without hot water, her two dogs, the beauty of nature, her family, neighbors, friends and the generosity of strangers with insight, warmth and humor.
She skillfully mixes poignant vignettes from her past with poetic reflections on the present. She says, “Life, I have discovered, is not a continuous narrative, so much as a grab bag of scenes played and then replayed as the moment I occupy recalls them and brings them into focus.”
She expresses ambivalence about her solitary life. She says, “Solitude is an easy companion. It doesn't require much from me except the ability to be comfortable alone. Friends need more. They need my attention, my energy, and my time. On the whole I prefer solitude. Even so I wouldn't trade the times I spent at the pond with my friends for twice the solitary hours.”
As Blackmarr's fear of predators recedes she learns to have a deeper more loving and respectful relationship with the natural world. Over time she finds snakes will leave when left alone or gently nudged from the path with a stick instead of shooting them. She declares a truce with the mice after unsuccessfully trying to trap them. In my experience a “Have a Heart” mouse trap is highly effective.
Blackmarr even tells her neighbor, “Animals aren't going to attack unless they feel threatened,” when he suggest she carry a gun when she walks in the woods.
She was, sadly, unwilling to interfere with her dogs killing armadillos and other animals. She came to accept the process as natural. I respectfully disagree. Domestic dogs can be trained not to kill.
Ultimately, like Annie Dillard's “Pilgrim and Tinker Creek” “Going to Ground” is the story of one woman's return to her roots, living close to the soil, learning to see and the discovery of herself.
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