When in Need Plant a Seed

There’s no doubt about it. In today’s world, everyone deals with social issues at times in their life. Whether it be a period of profound loss, a time of change, or a difficulty fitting in, we will all go through the pains and challenges these issues create. Often times people find a way to cope with the stress of these issues by pouring their heart and soul into a passion or an otherwise positive activity. That is exactly the way it is for the characters in the book Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman. In this short but powerful story, 13 characters in a Cleveland neighborhood struggle to fit in, to deal with change and loss and a variety of other issues.  At first they find resistance from neighbors, from society, and from within. But following the lead of Kim, a young Vietnamese girl, they take over a vacant lot and turn it into a neighborhood garden.  Together they develop a sense of community and find courage to deal with their individual issues. In Seedfolks, I think that the various characters show through their experiences that having a constructive use of time can be helpful when dealing with challenging issues.

The first character in the story who uses the vacant lot to help her deal with issues in her life is Kim. Kim and her family are immigrants from Vietnam. The story begins with her worshiping at the family’s shrine. Her father died before she was even born, and in Vietnamese culture, those who have passed on are remembered with candles, incense sticks, food offerings and prayers on the anniversary of their death. Kim struggles to deal with the fact that she and her father never had a relationship, while her mother and sisters did. So she has decided on a project that will give her a connection to her father, a life-long farmer. She walks to a vacant lot nearby and plants some lima beans. As she does, she thinks to herself that “in that vacant lot he would see me… He would see my patience and my hard work. I would show him that I could raise plants, as he had. I would show him that I was  his daughter.” (p. 3) This is incredibly important to Kim, who until now has felt disconnected with her father. By planting the beans, she hopes for her father’s spirit to see her good works and feel a sense of pride. In this way, her work in the vacant lot helps her to finally connect with her father and to overcome the issue of never having known him.

Another character who is using the garden to help deal with an issue is Tio Juan,  the elderly uncle of one of the storytellers, Gonzalo. Tio Juan has recently arrived in Cleveland from Guatemala. Unlike the young Gonzalo, who has learned to fit into his new home and society, Tio Juan is a complete misfit. Gonzalo even likens him to a baby, as he just wanders around the apartment they share talking to himself. The reason Tio Juan doesn’t fit in is that he can’t communicate with others. He speaks an Indian language that even Gonzalo doesn’t speak. He, like Kim’s father, had been a farmer, so the city life is completely foreign to him. And then, like so many characters in the book, he finds the lot. Instantly he transforms into a person with a purpose. “Tio Juan didn’t even notice people - he was totally wrapped up in the work… He’d changed from a baby back into a man.” (p. 16, 17) The change in Tio Juan is remarkable to Gonzalo and to us as readers. Suddenly we see him spritely moving around the garden, deftly working the seeds and soil, and in the process, we all learn not to judge an older person who seems to struggle fitting into a modern society. Gonzalo puts it perfectly when he notes, “I realized that I didn’t know anything about growing food and that he knew everything.” (p. 17) The lot allows Tio Juan to show his skills and his knowledge, and by doing so he overcomes his issue of fitting in.

Later in the story we meet Curtis, a muscular man bent on winning back the woman of his dreams, Lateesha. She left him when he got a little too full of himself and his handsome looks. Now he’s trying to show her that he is a changed man with her best interests in mind. How does he propose to do this? Once again, through the lot. He plants her favorite food, tomatoes, and goes through all of the challenges and pains of attempting to raise them successfully. Curtis throws himself into this work. We can truly see him growing and changing as a person as the seasons pass. He stops all of the activities that took him away from Lateesha in the first place, like bodybuilding and showing off his physique, and he devotes all of his time to the tomatoes. “That was part of the point of the tomatoes. I was showing Lateesha that just cause I got muscles don’t mean I’m some jungle beast.” It seems that the lot came along at the perfect point for Curtis. By raising what Lateesha loves to eat, he can show that she is important to him. In this way, he seems to be making progress by the end of his narrative, “I looked up at her window… there was her face, staring down.” (p. 45) Curtis’ constructive use of time in the garden appears to help him win over his love.

Time and time again the characters in Seedfolks turn to the empty lot to find solutions to the big problems in their lives. And more often than not their time spent there is rewarded. So, how do you handle the big issues in your life? Perhaps taking a lesson from the 13 characters in this story could help you deal with that problem that’s nagging you. Either way, pouring time and energy into a passion is time well spent. Who knew it could also help you conquer life’s toughest issues?

Image from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seedfolks