Barbara Kingsolver Manifests a Better World
God's work in Appalachia - The Higher Ground Women's Recovery Residence in Pennington Gap, Virginia
One of the great gifts of being a writer is the travel that ensues. In a sense, all novelists are travel writers- we let the soul take us where it wants to go, to places and times in which we did not live, but by some grace of God, can conjure for the reader in detail.
When Barbara sent me Demon Copperhead, her Pulitzer prize-winning opus about a boy in Appalachia who finds his way in the world, I could not put it down. These were my people on the pages, the folks I grew up with in Appalachia. Barbara based the novel on Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield, and I imagine, just as we still read Dickens, in the years and centuries to come, we will be reading Barbara Kingsolver. As a writer, she is without peer- her sense of the natural world that we inhabit (sometimes invade) is crystalline, evocative, and often emotional. Barbara understands people as well as she understands animals and plants and has written extensively about the beauty that is the creation of life itself. So, it’s almost a matter of natural course that this powerhouse artist, along with her husband Steven and their daughters Camille and Lily, would reclaim Appalachia as the epicenter of healing.
The Higher Ground Women’s Recovery Residence is, first of all, a home where the women in recovery live side-by-side as new family as they rebuild and re-dream from the worst depths a person can plummet. In recovery, it’s not just about healing the past, but making a new plan, resolving to move forward in purpose- in good health- in sobriety- for as long as it takes- together. This isn’t a magical solution, but one that every addict will hopefully embrace. The solution to every human problem is to connect to other human beings who empathize. As an artist, Barbara knows and understands this on a level so deep, she shimmers. Barbara knows that her talent isn’t who she is, but instead, what she can do with it- that matters.
So imagine my joy when Silas House (the poet laureate of Kentucky, superb novelist himself) and I were invited to join the block party and celebration of the Higher Ground Home. Any time spent with Barbara, Silas and Steven is a soul lifter, so I couldn’t wait to get there. The program was fabulous. Beth Snapp performed with Jay Farmer and Jason Crawford. The women living in at Higher Ground took the stage, and that’s when our souls really opened up. Their stories reminded me of Demon- as he described his life in the novel- and you felt the hope that can only come from self discovery.
You see, Lee County is a resplendent place. The mountains fold back like green velvet, and the sky opens up so blue, you are sure it’s the path to heaven itself. A few miles down the road from Big Stone Gap, it’s the road to Kentucky- and when I was a girl, we were on that road often. As you take a turn off the main drag to a residential neighborhood, there nestled in the trees, with a wide, green backyard and a front porch good for settin’, is the place where the healing happens. I checked out the bulletin board- there are recovery meetings every day- mandatory. There are sign up sheets for chores. The house was pristine, but homey: donated furniture (plush and comfortable), nooks for reading, shelves filled with books, a kitchen organized and neat, cupboards for each resident. The basics of family life: organization, a dining table with a seat for everyone, warmth and security. You and I could live there- in the shade of trees in that Lee County breeze with winds so sweet you wish you could bottle the scent.
I do not mean to make recovery sound simple. As we know, it’s a lifelong journey. Dr. Art Van Zee (a hero of ours) and his wife Sue Ella (a heroine of ours) have been on the front lines serving folks in Appalachia for years. They too, shimmered when they were brought on stage, because they know that the essential building block of a new life is to address the old one. Something new looks like many things. To some addicts, it’s to get a job and pay rent on an apartment and have a life free from the bondage of drugs and alcohol. For others, it’s all that and an intention to heal those they’ve hurt along the way. It is many things- many layers- to retrain the physical body to function without the drugs- to rewire the old brain into a new purposeful brain. It’s the vigilance- to know that to walk with pain, hurt and rejection is part of life, and not a part of life to be anesthetize. None of this is easy, and none of it is simplistic, but it can be done. I was raised in the Appalachian mountains, and the women are made of something. They do not give up. They do not give in. They persist. No matter how long it takes, they will get to the other side. But they can not do it alone. That’s where Barbara comes in- that’s where you and I come in, filing into place behind her.
Whenever you think the world is too big, that there are too many problems, that the problems seem remote, in a place called Appalachia where you have never been, and perhaps, do not understand, all of those suppositions are understandable. But please know, that the seed of American artistry, ingenuity and strength is thriving in those mountains, and have since the days of the indigenous tribes who lived there- who were joined by our ancestors, whether they were Scots, Irish, African, middle European, Italian, middle Eastern, Asian- we are all represented there and beyond- thriving in the Appalachians for centuries. You do have a stake in it, if you think about it. But, I’d like to speak to the idea that the problems in the world are too big and unwieldy to be solved. Like any task, we have to break it down, individual person to problem to solution. Barbara saw the problem and, like those before her who went to solve it, went into it knowing that permanent solutions are moving targets. We have to ebb and flow, move with the river, to keep moving forward. The Higher Ground Home is respite on the raging river. And, already, Barbara and Steven are expanding- another building has been purchased next door to the residence, because the need is so great.
My mom, a librarian, used to say that it was essential to educate women- because women raised the children. This was not to disparage the role of men but to elevate the path of women. As caregivers, women often put themselves last, and that job can deplete them. Situations arrive that seem impossible- and drugs and alcohol appear to be a magical balm to cure the pain- but we know now, they are not. The Higher Ground Recovery Center is where we go to find ourselves again, and our purpose in life. I hope, in a hundred years, it remains as a place for women to heal, and just as we read Barbara’s books through space and time, there will be a place to honor the dignity and hope of the addict- who does not suffer because she wants to, but because she was hopeless. Barbara is giving us all hope, and knowing my readers here, you are looking for that lift too. Well, here it is. We need you.
You can learn more about the Higher Ground Women’s Recovery Residence here. Support the residence by following the link here.
Join Adriana on tour with her new novel, The View from Lake Como (July 8th). Event info on adrianatrigiani.com.