Be joyful/though you have considered all the facts.
What does it mean? Let’s look at “you have considered all the facts”. This seems to refer to the act of learning about issues carefully, thinking thoroughly and knowing things such as the facts, statistics, arguments, etc. Take the topic of sustainable food and agriculture for example, if one were to “consider all the facts”, he or she probably would know about things such as the rising food prices, increasing levels of soil contamination, climate change induced-droughts, overpopulation, just to name a few. So, my immediate reaction to this is, how on earth is it possible that one can “be joyful” after “considering all the facts”?
The answer seems to lie within the word “though” in this sentence. The word “though” implies to me that Wendell Berry knew that a person, who has considered all the facts, would most likely not “be joyful” (or far from being joyful, to be more accurate). With the word “though”, Wendell Berry encourages people to “be joyful” and shows people that being joyful is a choice.
My supervisor, Chef Mark Williams at Brown-Forman, has started a barrel garden at Brown-Forman to grow fresh herbs, flowers and fruits for B-F’s Executive Dining Room. The barrels were once used for holding bourbon or wine. They were cult in half and each had two drainage holes that were drilled on the side. In addition, Mark built a drip irrigation system that can be used to water the plants. In order to build and manage an organic garden at B-F, Mark had first “considered all the facts”, such as the type of plants, the size and design of the garden, and last but not least, the economic feasibility. For example, Mark knew that he wouldn’t have as much time to work in the garden (such as watering the plants) as he would like to, so he had to think of ways to manage his garden most effectively and efficiently. Therefore he built an automatic irrigation system that allows him to mange the garden without physically being at the garden.
I believe that what Wendell Berry wrote in his poem is the type of joy that can be actively chosen. When one is joyful, there is more chance that he or she can come up with ideas to solve the problems.