
Kickass and corn fields
Kickass, the doorstop dog, passes on the observation of the keeper after he—the keeper, drove through miles of Iowa and Minnesota corn fields in the past couple of days on his way to “The Big Woods” on the western edge of the driftless area. Giant automated machines prowl the endless fields like voracious dinosaurs, and mingled among them, closer to the woods, are the horse drawn buggies and wagons of the Amish. Finally, in the woods with its thick trees and steep valleys and flood-prone streams, and ditches full of fall flowers, there is a comforting sense of Nature unobstructed by the contrasting survival decisions of some men with million dollar machine and others with plodding horses. The contrast morphs into the tangle of global, greed-based decision making that portends disaster, and it powers a perverse yen to stay in the Big Woods.

