"For except for some humans—with their sealed coffins and vaults, their pathological fear of the earth—the only way into the soil is through other bodies. Given only the health of the soil, nothing that dies is dead for very long. Within this powerful economy, it seems that death occurs only for the good of life. It is impossible to contemplate the life of the soil for very long without seeing it as analogous to the life of the spirit.
The soil is the great connector of lives, the source and destination of all. It is the healer and restorer and resurrector, by which disease passes into health, age into youth, death into life. Without proper care for it we can have no community, because without proper care for it we can have no life."
- WB "The Unsettling of America"
The more I become aware of how disconnected I am from the earth I begin to see what Berry refers to as our “pathological fear of the earth”. I notice my fears and the fears of others as we continue to distance ourselves from reality. To really live I must, we must, once again find our place in what Berry calls the “Wheel of Life”. Life, death, resurrection is the way of the kingdom.
Posted by David at 8:29 AM
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
10 comments:
http://queencityfarm.org/ - we have a direct connection to this "happening" up in buffalo - hoping that some of us can go visit sometime this fall, or next spring. check out the short documentary on the left of the page.
also, maybe I can drive out to newark one evening in the next few weeks. I do know newark naz (john and wes) are coming to visit lower lights this thursday. if you can come with them, do it - if not, you can come down almost anytime during the week. either way, i will still come to have dinner with the ballenger families ASAP.
no CSA farms in your area - I think e.stetler went out to springfield last season to learn and work. it is a federal program - just google CSA farms to at least know where some good organic farming is happening.
and then there is the thought that we should drive down to Henry County, KY to visit Wendell Berry.
Lanes Landing Farm
Port Royal, KY 40058
So any thoughts on how you might begin to reconnect with the Earth? Perhaps overcoming the fears? Perceived reality?
One of the best things Dr. Sanders said was that the meaning of life is relationships. For too long we been lulled into thinking that we have no relationship with the soil, it is simply a resource that produces goods for our consumption. I think that is the most foundational way to overcome our ignorance. In my last post I put a link to KM's blog where he posted WB's seventeen rules for a sustainable community. That looks like one of the best ways to reconnect with the earth and become a prophetic voice in your community concurrently.
It seems to me that the soil gets me to the very foundation of my relationship with God and to become a nurturer of my relationship with the soil is to realize a nurturing relationship with people rather than an continuing the pattern of exploitation in relationships.
So by modeling care for the soil others will begin to "see" how they can be connected with God, right? So the basic idea is to use the soil aka ground to produce need meeting materials for the local community. What would a prophetic voice, that is caring for the soil, say to someone?
i like the symbolism of death and resurrection. burying a seed underground, watching it rise, grow, and produce fruit.
our friends, doug and molly, in honduras, planted seed on good friday of this past spring. check it out - http://picasaweb.google.com/paz.a.usted/TheGarden/photo#s5071645001590198514
i think that symbol alone carries meaning and weight that all of the business/sports oriented illustrations and models could never carry.
other things, that would be seen, rather than heard, our found in community, sharing, and dependence which have centered around the relationship between us, God, and the land for centuries and centuries.
if jesus continually pointed to the land as a symbol for all kinds of teachings, how can we continue to live and teach our own story, if we are so disconnected from it, literally and metaphorically?
how many of us, have seen or held a mustard seed? I haven't, yet.
what if these great symbols were just apart of our everyday lives - would we really need persuasive evangelical techniques?
yesterday, it was just that simple. Next door to the urban gardens, Sammy and his sister Haley (he prefers to be called "Little Bull", and she "Princess" - 8 or 9 years of age) came over when I was watering the soil. they wanted to help, and they wanted to pick a ripe squash to take home and eat. so we shared. when I sat over at the prayer garden, "Little Bull" ask me about the St. Francis statue in our prayer garden. he ask who is was and why it was there - i explained about francis being a follower of jesus, and about this garden being a place to come, sit, and pray/talk to God. he didn't ask anymore questions, and I didn't feel any need to explain anymore, but just to sit and enjoy their company.
all those ordinary symbols, with all that extraordinary meaning, outside of a church building or community center building, in one of the poorest neighborhoods in the city. Thank God.
just so you know, I wasn't directing any of my negative comments at you, but rather my own experiences.
peace dude.
Nate,
maybe this link will actually appear. you probably have seen it before anyways, if you keep up with their blog - but the slideshow is great.
http://picasaweb.google.com/paz.a.usted/TheGarden
that is powerful.
The first comandment,
"Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.’ God said, ‘See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food."
"Body, soul (or mind or spirit), community, and world are all susceptible to each other's influence, and they are all conductor's of each other's influence. The body is damaged by the bewilderment of the spirit, and it conducts the influence of that bewilderment into the earth, the earth conducts it into the community, and so on."
WB
That is a good start, I think.
Nate,
By the way i am really happy we are getting to reconnect even in this most impersonal medium.
Thanks
d
Dave,
I am just spitballing here, but maybe, just maybe we could meet up some time, if not that is fine too.
Christ's servant-friend and yours,
Nathan
Post a Comment