Flight Behavior
(by Barbara Kingsolver, Harper Collins, 2012)
The main story line of Flight Behavior goes like this: Monarch butterflies are discovered swarming around the treetops of an Appalachian mountain. This has never happened before! Why here? Why now? Professors, field investigators, a beloved minister and the common folk all have their theories.
My favorite scene is this: Dellarobia, the local heroine and a newly minted scientific observer of butterflies, encounters Mr. Akins on the mountain road. She’s got her binoculars trained on the trees as if the continuing existence of butterflies depends on her. He is an enthusiastic environmentalist who has come to town in his low emissions vehicle to save the butterflies his way: by handing out a list of actions people can take to reduce their carbon footprint. She gets him to read his list aloud to her.
“Number one. Bring your own Tupperware to a restaurant for leftovers, as often as possible.”
“I’ve not eaten in a restaurant for over two years,” Dellarobia tells him.
“Jesus. Are you serious? May I ask why?”
Dellarobia, whose family are sheep farmers, says nothing. He must have seen for himself that folks in this area don’t live like that.
The second item now sounds as silly to him as the first. “Try bringing your own mug for coffee” doesn’t make much sense to people who don’t have a fancy coffee shop anywhere nearby. Who in this town has the time or money to go out for coffee on a daily basis in the first place?
Mr. Akins quickly decides “carry your own cutlery” instead of using fast food plastic utensils doesn’t apply either.
He finally gets to an item on his list he thinks will work. “Carry your own Nalgene bottle instead of buying bottled water.”
“Our water is good. We wouldn’t pay for store-bought.”
“Okay,” he said. “Try to reduce the intake of red meat in your diet.”
“Are you crazy? I’m trying to increase our intake of red meat.”
“Why is that?”
“Because mac and cheese only gets you so far, is why. We have lamb, we produce that on our farm. But I don’t have a freezer.”
Dellarobia tries to get Mr. Akin to read the rest of his list, but by this point he is very reluctant. He knows his suggestions might as well come from the planet Pluto. Use internet sites, such as Craig’s list, to find used items instead of buying new. She has no computer. Switch some stocks and bonds to socially responsible investments. Upgrade your appliances. Use public transportation. Fly less. None of these apply to Dellarobia’s impoverished life on a rural sheep farm.
This gem of a scene from Flight Behavior is typical of the realities of living as equals. In this case, it’s the insider and the outsider talking about the same thing from two very different perspectives. We realize while we’re reading along how ludicrous Mr. Akins suggestions are in this setting. The ideas have value in many other settings. But if these bone-weary Appalachian farmers can do something to reduce their carbon footprint, it will have to come from the realities of life as they live it, not from life as it is experienced in vastly different communities.
Part of the beauty of that scene is the quality of kindness the characters display to one another. No one gets ticked off. One person doesn’t get all huffy and feel superior to the other. These two characters accept each other as they are. And they listen in order to make sense of each other’s perspective.
Insiders and outsiders don’t need to see eye to eye in order to live as equals. Insiders do need to be capable of carrying on a civil conversation when dealing with people who seem like idiots for making assumptions about their lives. Delarobia was able to do that, using her comments to give the outsider information about life inside her world.
Outsiders do have to have the humility to admit that their ideas, no matter how righteous, might be flawed. Mr. Akins is a pretty good role model for that. He quickly perceives that his important list of sustainability habits loses all meaning in rural Appalachia.
We get into trouble when our sense of being equals is impaired by our sense of being different. We are different. We will always be different, one from another. But we are still equals.
