Dirt (July 2013) by Renee

Sterile Environments

I was excited to write about dirt with a focus on the land, a desire to feel rooted, or the uncomfortable recognition that dirt is made up of the dead and the living. But what really comes to mind is the padded half-walls of my office building, and all the negative gossip I hear riding on the recycled air. "Give me the dirt on that one".

The word gossip comes from Old English God Sibb (God Relative), and refers to the community of women who would come to a house during the birth of a child.

This word has morphed from a way of treating people around us like family during the most vulnerable, intimate, and painful moments of life to a toxic presence that has filled any office or neighborhood I have ever inhabited.

And we spend most of our waking hours at work, in these stilted relationships that have strict boundaries, vaguely explained by words like professionalism. Afterwards we return, tired and distracted, to our God Sibb.

Geophagy is the practice of eating dirt. Literally. Animals do it. People do it. Likely because they crave the minerals in dirt, and their culture has made a practice of ensuring sufficient mineral intake at key times, like pregnancy.

I will draw a cheesy comparison and say there are essential minerals in the lives of everyone we encounter, and we crave it. Even at work. Especially at work? We are hungry for community.

But...there is a difference between talking about someone's 'dirt', and literally clearing it away as they push out life.

           -Renee