Our Blue Earth explores the melancholy dark side as well as the natural beauties of rural life as seen through the eyes of the author as a young man growing up in Blue Earth, Minnesota.GRANDMA RAIN When it rains hard, I think of the small ring I keep in a hollow book my grandmother and her small hands. She touches my cheek, smiles. I tell her my name again and for a little while sit with her, sharing the warmth of her shawl. Then as the rain slows, I find myself alone again, and young, and I promise to be good.