We are a supermarket society. We expect anything we want to be sitting there in all its glory when we walk in, and complain if it isn't there or if it isn't fresh. We have become distant from our relationship to and dependency on nature. We've forgotten the faith and sacrifice it takes a farmer to feed the rest of us.

Some people have never pushed a seed into the ground to understand the frailty of that seed in the face of the elements. How can we expect our children to care about or understand issues of ozone and water quality? The appreciation for the balance of nature must begin at a young age. Chief Seattle said in 1855, "Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect."

Why a cow? I think that I look at these large docile creatures as symbols of the bridge between man/domestication and nature. Whenever I see cows in a landscape, grazing lazily, it reminds me of our relationship to nature and I stop and take in a deep appreciative breath. They seem so at peace, so solid.

By the way, the back of the quilt has a purple cow, red and white checked fabric, like a tablecloth and another fabric showing BBQ utensils, steaks, and hot dogs.