Newspapers, and newspaper writers, are often known for moving fast. But for Margaret Renkl, New York Times contributing opinion writer and author of multiple books, slowing down and falling in love with nature is essential to saving it in the future.
“We aren’t going to save what we don’t love,” Renkl said. “We have to fall in love with our wild neighbors if we have any hope of living compatibly with them.”
On Thursday night, Renkl discussed her newest book “The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year,” at the Nissan Auditorium on the Mississippi University for Women campus. The book, which came out on Tuesday, is a literary natural devotional, inviting readers to fall in love with the creatures they see in day-to-day life.
Renkl said part of her motivation for writing was the changing climate and the melting of the ice caps, as species like polar bears are slowly disappearing. But the other part of her motivation was her two adult sons moving back out of her house following the COVID-19 pandemic.
“There they were in our house, just like they were little kids again, except they were grown men,” Renkl said. “And we were all adjusting and had kind of come to some peace about it. But at the time I was having this conversation with my editor, they were getting ready to move out again. And I knew this time that when they left, they would be gone for good.”
Renkl compared her sons to baby bluebirds who leave the nest to find territory of their own, which is both natural but difficult. The theme of life-cycles runs throughout the book, following some unexpected animals.
Once Renkl was informed of Columbus’s nickname “Possumtown,” she read from a section of her book titled, “Loving the Unloved Animals.”
“Sing, O muse, of the lumbering opossum, of the nearsighted, stumbling opossum, whose only defenses are a hiss and a hideous scowl,” Renkl read. “Let us rejoice in the pink-nosed, pink-fingered opposum, her silvery pouch full of babies no bigger than a honeybee.”
“The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year” also includes praise songs written about animals, plants and other natural sights Renkl witnessed while writing, along with collage-style illustrations by Renkl’s brother, Billy Renkl.
“What he did was spread these works in progress out and he would lay out the thirteen weeks of spring and the thirteen weeks of summer,” Margaret Renkl said. “He was trying to make progressions. Even if you haven’t read the book, you can follow the year unfolding.”
Renkl said she is not a wildlife expert, but she is constantly in awe of nature and attempting to be a good neighbor to creatures that live around her.
“I don’t claim to be an expert in anything,” Renkl said. “I’m just trying to be a good neighbor. I’m trying to be a good neighbor to the non-human creatures that share my ecosystem. And that means planting native plants that are good for them. That means not mowing. … It’s just not hard to be a good neighbor.”
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