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Welcome to Root of the Matter!
Root of the Matter is a brand new podcast from the Tennessee Farm Bureau Federation where we aim to get to the “root of the matter” on issues, events and news defining our most important industry, agriculture. Before we jump into those things though, we did want to provide you with a glimpse on why we’re doing this podcast and where the name came from. HINT: Our good friend and coworker Melissa Bratton has something to do with it. Below you will find her last article written for Tennessee Home & Farm that unfortunately never was published.
Seasonal chore accumulates rocks and life lessons
By: Melissa Burniston Bratton
“For several years growing up, my family raised a large garden, and being the eldest of my sisters, I thought it fell to me to make sure everyone had jobs to ensure its productivity. I went to my parents with that mission in mind. Looking back now, I can see that is where it
all started to go downhill. You see, we lived on the side of a mountain, literally, and my parents decided our job should be to make sure the freshly tilled ground was ready for all the yummy vegetables we were going to plant. So, basically, the job for me and my sisters was to pick the rocks out.
There were lots and lots of rocks. Lots. To my childhood self, it seemed as if they multiplied as we picked them. Each sister had a bucket in direct correlation to her size (which meant mine was the biggest at five gallons), and we would set it down, pick up the rocks all around us, place them in the bucket and then lug the bucket to the edge of the garden to dump it next to the trees where Dad had created a “rock spot” just for us. Trip after trip, I lugged that bucket from the tilled ground to the edge of trees to dump the rocks out, wondering what in the world I had been thinking of when I volunteered to help with the garden. My sisters weren’t too thrilled with my leadership either, muttering about how hot it was and how heavy the buckets were with all the rocks in them … and how they were going to throw them at me instead.
Determined to find something positive in the situation, I began singing fun songs like “We Will Rock You,” “I am a Rock” and “Rock Around the Clock” to entertain my fellow rock-hauling mates, which wasn’t met with the anticipated laughter and spirit of solidarity I expected, but rather eye-rolling and sighs. Had I truly crushed their spirits by signing us up for this duty?
Fortunately for the future of our sisterhood and my well being, my parents deemed the garden to be sufficiently rock-free soon after my attempt at levity, and we were able to then play on the rock pile we had created! Playing queen of the mountain, finding rocks that resembled various household items and throwing some of them into the woods to try and scare my parents into thinking a wild animal was coming reinvigorated my sisters’ sense of fun and allowed us all to participate in the planting of the vegetables with the appropriate attitude of positivity and fun. The resulting summer filled with fresh from the garden goodness also helped ease the memory of the days of hauling rocks.
At the root of the matter, I learned two valuable lessons from our foray into gardening: first, be careful what you volunteer others for, and second, make sure in the garden of life you are the flowering vegetable and not the rock! I would much rather be a light in someone’s life and produce nourishment for others than be a lump of dirt that gets thrown into a pile to be forgotten.”
In 2019, Melissa passed away after a very short but valiant battle with an aggressive brain tumor. She was a beloved friend in the Tennessee agriculture community and beyond, and even more so, she was a servant and light to all she crossed paths with. Her contagious smile and love for all was evident always, and she cherished her precious family, many friends and the work she did for people. The root of the matter is: she was taken from this world too soon, but in the time she had here everyone she touched was blessed with her presence and love.
*We are working on making it available on Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts ASAP. Thanks for listening and stay tuned for more!
