2022 Annual Meeting Potluck That Leads to Hope

I suppose I will claim that the Badlands belong to no one and to everyone: national status should be a shared sense of belonging for yucca, sheep, juniper, rattlesnakes, wolves, coyotes, Cottonwoods, scoria and gumbo, buffalo, wild horses, tourists, golfers, hikers, Cottonwoods, the watercourses, Cottonwoods, historical faith in our country and its hopes, Cottonwoods,

And so much more—prairie dogs and sagebrush for instance—

So we joined BCA—I have been to too many annual meetings for banks, credit unions, co-ops, and churches, churches and more churches.  It was pretty much the same age groups, 50 to 100, at all those meetings. But at BCA there was an amazing sense, of common ground, literally and spiritually—here were people you had known or should have known all your life if your life includes the Badlands; here were the elements of the true potluck, true shared bread, true sense of preserving, stewarding, and loving a particular place that becomes idea and reality. The tone was shared hope, shared food, shared spirit of place, and common cause. We did not notice the sense of conflict and market forces that we have run into in churches and credit unions—instead, we found a will, the common will to take care of a place, to protect a place…

and to share a place. BCA is here to treasure one of our world’s great treasures for one and all, the Children of the world and the plants and animals too.  Sign me up again.

Oh, and besides, these people seem to have a generous love of acoustic guitars, minstrels and songs of this place, and ALL the arts and magic that goes into loving that place. What more can a minstrel of Dakota land ask?