Gresham Cash has dedicated his early adulthood to writing—his craft spans from songs with his former band Oak House, to scores for short films, to stories, novels and essays. His creative impulses are grounded in philosophical and scientific curiosity, which also led him to study wildlife biology for both his undergraduate and master’s degrees.
Although he has been with us since our founding days, Gresham is also our newest official member of the team, stepping aboard as contributing editor.
Season: Set the scene, what marks this season for you?
Deep blues with glowing greens. Young growth shimmers and announces the return of the dormant plants around us. But also, our allergic battles begin... Spring is the joyous arrival of delicious fruits and vegetables, colorful flowers, garden planting, turkey hunting, bass fishing, and summer planning.
Food: Something that nourishes you this time of year or the view from your kitchen.
Berries!
Career: Doubts, sacrifices, inspirations or victories that marked the trail of your success.
Still well within that process. It's a matter of defining success. Does time spent well, pleasantly, or productively equate to success? Or is time spent meeting expectations, fulfilling social norms, and placing markers of success? Is the farmer who feeds his family unsuccessful if his profits don't afford him a new truck?
Community: A moment when community or sense of place and role lifted you up.
We join clubs and social organizations because they feed our basic impulse to participate in the improvement and function of society at large. But community is something organic—its essence is about the relationship between its parts, not necessarily the presence or absence of good and bad inputs. Clubs are groups. Community is the microcosmic zeitgeist that lifts the group. In my experience, the best community support I've received is from individuals with futuristic lenses, those whose bottom line is not defined by momentary data—essentially the acorn that later crowns a cathedral. The community that never allows the issues, topics, or concerns to overtake the individuals in the process.
Impact: A vision, small or large, for your impact on the people around you.
I hope to help people to think about their place, choices, and values. As we acquire new and more information, do we simply discard it, or do we synthesize it and improve on our existence within the world? What good is a mansion at the cost of relationships, the mistreatment of the physical world, and injustice fortified by malevolent ego? If thought were of any use, it would be as the beginning of positive change, at the individual and global level.
Wisdom: What’s the one thing no one told you that you wished you’d known sooner?
We all labor in vain if our labor is the end. What we do doesn't define us and doesn't save us. How we live, who we know, and what we do about what we know is what will define our legacy in a timeline that is lengthier than our own could ever hope to be. Plant seeds, tend your garden, raise your family, and enjoy contemplating our place within a vast, complex cosmos.
Interviewed and photographed by Jodi Cash