jayber crow | quote series

“You have been given questions to which you cannot be given answers. You will have to live them out – perhaps a little at a time.’

‘And how long is that going to take?’

‘I don’t know. As long as you live, perhaps.’

‘That could be a long time.’

‘I will tell you a further mystery,’ he said. ‘It may take longer.”

I was telling my friend Patrick about Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry. I’ve read Berry before so I’m not new to his work, but Jayber Crow was a good one. It’s profound, one of those books that’s not really about anything and therefore, about everything. There’s grief, loss, adventure, homecoming, farming, and small town community.  It’s a book about knowing your place in the world and finding your way there.

Berry lays out his ideals clearly in Jayber Crow: his concern for an industrialized way of life divorced from the land, a love of the earth, and dependence on your neighbors (and vice versa). The book often meanders with little vignettes, but there is a grander story being told about the community. 

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When I first picked up Jayber Crow, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I knew that I’d get to see life in Port William from the perspective of a barber, but that was all. What I experienced was a whole range of emotions–the kind that makes a life: joy, delight, surprise, and grief. 

“Often I have not known where I was going until I was already there. I have had my share of desires and goals, but my life has come to me or I have gone to it mainly by way of mistakes and surprises. Often I have received better than I deserved. Often my fairest hopes have rested on bad mistakes. I am an ignorant pilgrim, crossing a dark valley. And yet for a long time, looking back, I have been unable to shake off the feeling that I have been led – make of that what you will.”

It isn’t until Jayber is older that he feels he’s been led, even though he knows not where he’s headed. I am much too young to say with any certainty that I feel led, but I have felt like there are some doors I’ve walked through because the circumstances aligned. The direction is still unclear to me. I have to remind myself that I am not the Driver, God is. It still unnerves me not to know where I’m headed. But Jayber didn’t struggle with that anxiety much. He spent decades as a barber in Port William, not leaving or longing for more, but staying in a place and being faithful to it.

I often dream of that sort of faithfulness to a place, to a people. 

Some might say Berry idealizes the world of the past, but I think he honors it. Often in our desire for progress, we unwittingly destroy the things that we enjoyed. In our desire for bigger homes and a world of gadgets, we said goodbye to the porch. For cheap clothes, the cost is child labor and terrible working conditions. For a variety of food, we neglect our fertile land and the animals. 

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In the world of Jayber Crow, the people work hard. I think that life should be easy, but the reality is that it is hard. The sooner I acquaint myself with this truth, the sooner I can enjoy life as it comes to me. 

If the world of Avonlea of Anne of Green Gables is for children, and Mitford is for myself as a young adult, then Port William is for the older folks, the ones who are desperate to share the wisdom of a life well lived before they greet this world goodbye.

If I’m honest with myself, I complain a lot. One of my favorite characters in Jayber Crow is Athey Keith. He’s a man of morals and he’s known for his hard work and lack of complaining. There are postures of being that have positive effects on the world: Keith is known for his patience and contentment. Both of which are qualities I need right now. Patience to wait to allow life to unfold as it wants to, and to have contentment in the meantime.

Related Post: Slow Living Habits

As a novel, Jayber Crow moves at a slow pace, leisurely. Moving like a turtle eager to stop for the little beauties along the way. All along, Jayber longs to make something of himself until one day, he doesn’t. The desire passes, and he lets his days be his days. In our youth, we are so eager to save the world, to leave a mark, to be known. But then humility sets in. Whether it’s the hardship of life, or whether it’s burnout from trying so hard, we stop. And we begin to live. To love those around us by being present to them. By resting in the beauty of nature. By taking care of the daily duties of our lives.

If you read Jayber Crow, I recommend you have tissues on hand. It is slow and meditative, and it is moving. It moved me to tears three times, profound in its simplicity and truth.

“The mercy of the world is time. Time does not stop for love, but it does not stop for death and grief, either. After death and grief that (it seems) ought to have stopped the world, the world goes on. More things happen. And some of the things that happen are good.”

Signing off,

Gigi