Cooperative Living May 2016 - 4

Viewpoint | by Richard G. Johnstone Jr., Executive Editor
Vol. 70, No. 5
ISSN 1529-4579
RICHARD G. JOHNSTONE JR.
Executive Editor
BILL SHERROD
Editor
LAURA EMERY
Field Editor
JANET BAILEY
Production Manager
LAURIE MILLS,
Apple Eye Studio, LLC
Graphic Designer
AMANDA S. CUNNINGHAM
Advertising Sales
SUSAN C. GLISSON
Advertising Assistant
To contact magazine:
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Phone: (804) 346-3344
Or at any time:
Fax: (804) 346-3448
Email: bsherrod@odec.com
Web: www.co-opliving.com
Published by the VA, MD & DE Association
of Electric Cooperatives
LARRY C. HOWDYSHELL
Chairman
JAMES E. HUFFMAN
Vice Chairman
HERBERT R. PATRICK
Secretary
FLETCHER B. JONES
Treasurer
JACKSON E. REASOR
President
RICHARD G. JOHNSTONE JR.
Executive Vice President
Board of Directors: R. Wayne Browning, A&N; C. Michael
Sandridge, Michael J. Keyser, BARC; George N. Goin, Gary E.
Wood, Central Virginia; Robert E. Arnold, Michael I. Wheatley,
Choptank; Jeannette S. Everett, Steven A. Harmon, Community;
James E. Huffman, Shawn C. Hildebrand, Craig-Botetourt;
Patricia S. Dorey, J. William Andrew, Delaware; Fletcher B. Jones,
John C. Lee, Jr., Mecklenburg; J. Steve Thomas, Sr., Greg W.
White, Northern Neck; J. Manley Garber, Stan C. Feuerberg,
Northern Virginia; Dale McNiel, Randell W. Meyers, Powell Valley;
Herbert R. Patrick, Micheal E. Malandro, Prince George; Richard
C. Oliver, Kent D. Farmer, Rappahannock; Larry C. Howdyshell,
Myron D. Rummel, Shenandoah Valley; Frank W. Bacon, Jeffrey
S. Edwards, Southside.
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I
'm an amateur naturalist, meaning I love
studying the natural world, but no one would
pay me for my rambling field studies or even
more rambling insights. Despite - or perhaps
because of - being an amateur, I know how to
spot outstanding professionals.
And one of the very best of the last century
was Edwin Way Teale, an informed and
informative writer and photographer who
beautifully captured with his pen and his lens
our natural landscape, and its plants and animals
large and small. He is perhaps best remembered
for his epic study of the seasons.
His four-part series (naturally) began with
springtime. In the late 1940s, he and his wife
traveled thousands of miles by car, beginning in
the Florida Everglades and following the march
of spring up the Eastern Seaboard. The result was
North with the Spring, published in 1951, and
followed over the next 14 years by Journey Into
Summer, Autumn Across America, and Wandering
Through Winter.
These four volumes constitute one of the
greatest classic sets of non-fiction writing in the
American literary canon, as they recount the
Teales' journey over 75,000 miles of the American
landscape. Surely at least in part to acknowledge
the excellence of the entire series, the final
volume covering wintertime was awarded the
Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction 50 years
ago, in 1966.
Of the four, my personal favorite is North
with the Spring, as Teale unrolls a green carpet
and gently ushers the reader through this most
welcome of seasons. He devotes one of the
chapters to " May at Monticello. " In it, he
describes emerging from Mr. Jefferson's residence,
when suddenly " all the small birds feeding in the
open dashed pell-mell into the bushes. "
Next, he sees why: a Cooper's hawk circles in
the sky above, awaiting its chance. Yet, instead
of remaining silent, the small birds enter into
" a confused babble of bird voices. "
As soon as the reader wonders why a flock
would get louder, rather than quieter, Teale offers
the answer: " By flocking together in the air,
small birds are able to divide the attention of the
hawk, to distract it by many shapes in motion.
As long as they keep together, and the hawk is
unable to cut one individual from the flying
mass, all escape. "
2
He points out that " the calls, coming from all
sides at the same time, apparently disconcert the
bird of prey. At any rate, the Cooper's hawk swept
on without pausing, reached the edge of the
mountainside, and slid down out of sight. The
twittering chorus ceased ... Now that the danger
was past, there remained no visible remnant of
haunting fear. Monticello in May was once more a
place of sunshine and of peace. "
To which any Virginian would add: Just as it
should be!
This snippet from a nature classic speaks to a
point much larger than small birds avoiding the
reach of a raptor. It reminds us of the power of
cooperation in the human realm too. Rural folks
in the mid-1930s handled a different kind of crisis
in much the same way as Mr. Jefferson's chipping
and English sparrows.
In the first few decades of the 20th century, the
marvels of electricity were transforming cities,
midwifing the birth of suburbs, and creating for
metro-area residents what would ultimately
become the highest standard of living in history. In
the 1930s, though, rural areas were still in the
dark. Time-saving, labor-saving, money-saving
devices were largely dependent on electricity, and
only 10 percent of rural people had access to it.
But by joining together, they were able to create
their own utility - a cooperative - to provide
themselves with power, at cost. This effort that
began in the mid-'30s was repeated over and over
in communities across Virginia and across the
nation, to the point where today there are over
900 local cooperatives in 47 states.
And after 80 years, even as Virginia's rural areas
shrink and her suburbs grow, the member-owned
cooperative model still works. It does so because
the focus has always been on local people
providing other local people with responsive
service. If there's money left over at the end of the
year, it's assigned to the members as patronage
capital, and later returned to them.
Member ownership also means member control.
A cooperative's policies are set by a board of
directors consisting of members, elected by their
fellow members, working for the benefit of all the
members.
So, whether deterring imminent threats or
providing ongoing needs, bird brains and human
brains both recognize the power of the flock
sticking together. 
www.co-opliving.com
Working together is a really smart strategy, whether you're
dodging hawks or providing yourselves with electricity.
Bird Brains
http://www.co-opliving.com http://www.co-opliving.com
Cooperative Living May 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Cooperative Living May 2016
