From “There is No Separation”

By Laura Jackson. This story was collected as part of a 2023 open call for submissions. It is one of 17 stories that were selected to be published.

In 2022 I was asked to be in a short documentary film, “There is No Separation.”  In one sequence, filmed at my great-grandparents’ homestead, I retell a story told by my step grandfather who worked this family ranch most of his life.  His story illustrates for me how our western Montana climate has changed over recent generations.  

As you see, the filmmakers followed the scene at my family homestead with one filmed beside the nearby river referenced in my step grandfather’s story.  I was asked to read there the last section of the tale of King Midas from the classical Roman writer, Ovid. Ovid tells of the king’s greedy wish to have everything he touches turn to gold until, having faced the deadly consequences of his greed, he is allowed to wash away the golden “gift”. But, reading it, I thought Ovid’s last line hints also at a price paid by the land for this royal human’s greed.  After the river washes the king free from the cursed gift, at places watered by the river “the particles still flood over the fields to harden the soil with gold and to dye the earth clods yellow.”

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Since 1976 Laura Jackson has made her home about five miles from her great grandparents' homestead.