The Art of Range

Meet Mark and Wendy Pratt, ordinary people doing unglamorous work with extraordinary care. C.S. Lewis said "we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment. It is frustrating . . . to come suddenly, at the turn of the road, upon some mountain valley of unexpected grandeur and then to have to keep silent because the people with you care for it no more than for a tin can in the ditch." We are quick to praise teachers and medical professionals like nurses because their work involves mundane faithfulness to work that is good for society and they are largely unthanked. Ranchers doing the daily work of caring for the living skin of the earth, work that involves wildlife habitat conservation, food production, open space protection, and much more, are sometimes treated worse than the tin can in the ditch -- at least the can is unnoticed -- ranchers are often vilified. We could begin by judging this group of people by their best representatives instead of their worst. I hope you will share my enjoyment of Mark & Wendy by listening to them describe their care for all creatures great and small and the land that supports us all.

TRANSCRIPT AND LINKS AT https://artofrange.com/episodes/aor-140-unsung-caretakers-unseen-land-mark-wendy-pratt-idaho-ranchers