A Perspective from a Young Christian Agrarian

The Reconciliation of Humanity and Earth

2009-08-06T10:37:00.000-05:00

On July 19th, I (Joseph) gave a sermon at my church (The Mercy House). I am posting it here because it has a lot to do with farming, environmental care, and local culture. These are issues that readers of this blog may like to look deeper into and here with the link below i offer my teaching and perspective on such things. In it i draw from the bible, wendell berry, and the ethos of Anderson, IN in support of why reconciliation with the earth is so biblically important and also i develop a set of “land ethics” that deals with the mentality of a human towards the earth and creation and how it should be. The main point is that the earth belongs to God, not us.

http://media.themercyhouse.com/sermons/sermon_2009-07-19_Joe_Monroe.mp3

the first few minutes are bad quality but if you get through that, the majority of the sermon is in good quality.

A Recent Paper about Biblical Ag. and Politics

2009-04-20T23:08:00.002-05:00

Isaiah 5.8-10

8 Woe to those who join house to house, who add field to field, until there is no more room, and you are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land.

9 The LORD of hosts has sworn in my hearing:"Surely many houses shall be desolate, large and beautiful houses, without inhabitant.

10 For ten acres of vineyard shall yield but one bath, and a homer of seed shall yield but an ephah.” (NRSV)

The Plight of Poor Farmers¹

The book of Isaiah pays acute attention to injustice. Merely one example of this will be discussed here though it is an important one for the people of Israel in the 8^th century BCE as well as the present moment.² It will be proven in this paper that the ones who benefit from the acquisition of an abundance of land are indeed the wealthy who will ironically condemn themselves through their actions, but they are also burdening the small-scale sustenance farmer who must also pay a heavy price because of the greed of those indicted in this text. Another investigation of this paper that goes hand in hand with the first part of the thesis, consequentially, will be to show that God is one that cares about equality. The focus will be on verses 8 and 9 (especially 8) as verse 10 is easy enough to understand (that is that the land would have been expected to produce a lot, but it produces just a little³).

The text makes a very specific claim about what kind of injustice that is being done. The injustice of v. 8-10 is the inequality of the distribution of land. This in effect causes a situation of inequality within a people. A look into the political landscape, cultural customs, and the social and economic climate is necessary to understand who is being judged against whom. This investigation will also be done to properly examine the extent of the injustice as well as what they says, in effect, about the character of God.

Literarily, this text is the first of a series of “woes” that spans through Isaiah 5.24 or potentially to 10.4. Brevard Childs gives a good summary of the meaning of the first indictment in the sequence in his book, Isaiah, “The first woe oracle is directed against the abuse of power by the wealthy who exploit the poor by driving them off their land. From the chilling story of Naboth’s vineyard (1 Kings 21) one learns how deep was the tradition of the land as a sacred inheritance (47).” Thus the indictment of abusing land becomes overwhelmingly problematic, because of how important it is for authentic Hebrew culture that promotes justice and equality. The story of Naboth (if looked into) shows the importance of land in this agrarian culture. What happens to Naboth in that story is happening to many more in this passage. As the wealthy gather up more and more land, what happens to the farmers whose families had owned the land for centuries?

It must first be asked, what is wrong with joining house to house and field to field, so that one can have all the land one desires? This would especially be a common question in our capitalistic society. The Torah, and elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible, is clear in stating that equality in Israel is the goal. The laws and observances of the Sabbath Year (Deut. 15.1-3), the fallow year (Ex. 23.10), the releasing of slaves (Ex. 21.2-6), the year of Jubilee (Lev. 25.8), and the unlawfulness of charging any interest on a loan (Ex. 22.24, Deut. 23.20, and Lev. 25.33, even though it did take place⁴) makes it resoundingly unambiguous that these laws were made to ensure that those who were poor have the opportunity to provide for themselves and that the rich did not become too much so. Tucker explains that “In the eighth century BCE⁵, economic shifts in the direction of capitalism were undermining the traditional ideas of stewardship of the land (93)”. Williamson also agrees with Tucker’s examination of the economic climate as he states that there was a “rise in the economic prosperity of the region during the 8^th century with the influence of the increased centralizing tendencies of the monarchy. ‘The egalitarian ideals of the past gave way to the opening for capitalist speculators (352).’” Therefore, the rise of capitalism created a situation in which the wealthy could get richer and take advantage of the poor who were closely tied to the land as subsistence farmers. Thus the gap between the rich and poor would become wider and wider over time, as biblical laws were circumvented and the idea that all people are equal was forgotten in the quest for prosperity. What was wrong to God about the abundance of land in this culture was that the acquisition of it was being taken from someone who needed it for survival. Thus slavery (Davies, 67) and homelessness (Tucker, 93) was perpetuated in the land of Judah.

The next question that needs to be asked in order to understand this situation is: who are the ones coming under judgment? Davies recommends two possibilities: creditors (66) or high officials of the state (76). The first suggestion is logically sound. Davies claims that “In a small, agricultural community,⁶ credit facilities were of the utmost importance, and it was inevitable that the poor land-owners should occasionally have to borrow grain or money from their wealthy neighbors (66).” Davies also claims that many scholars agree that “the custom of usury… prevailed during the period of the monarchy (66),” thus making it very possible that those being addressed in the biblical text are creditors. The creation of the profession of creditors also seems likely since it could very easily happen that a drought, plant disease, and other disasters could occur at anytime to the small-scale farmer. Thus it would become necessary to borrow from someone in order to have enough food to make it through the year especially if there are livestock and families to feed.⁷ Davies shows how such a cycle could easily turn sour; “the farmers were often reduced to poverty by crop-failure, and consequently they must have found it almost impossible to return the goods which they had borrowed (66).” In this case it would be easy for the creditor to take possession of a family member or the entire land itself since the debt was so hard to repay.

The second option is that the high officials of the king are the ones expanding the large estates. This is a much more politically dangerous position to take for Isaiah, since it indirectly indicts the king. Davies defends this by saying, “it appears that the king possessed sufficient land to be able to grant some of it not only to the members of his own family, but also to the high state officials, perhaps on the condition that the recipient of the fief perform certain services to the crown (76).” Thus these large estates mentioned in the biblical text would be royal estates and it may have been seen that the addition of land to the state and therefore to the crown was good for the country. This theory of just exactly who those in this passage are would make even more sense in a time of heightened fear due to the threat of a military invasion. Williamson quotes a long section from Holladay⁸ who suggested that “the rise of Assyrian control of the Levant generally led to the loss of state income from travel tolls. At the same time, the need to raise tribute would have put additional pressure on the main remaining source of revenue, namely tax on agricultural produce, so leading many into debt. Third allied with this, Hezekiah’s preparations for revolt against Assyria would have probably included not only conscription but also the need for massive additional resources at the state level (Williamson, 353).” In either case it would be the job of the high officials of the king of these time periods to collect as much land as possible either to make up for lost income or to gather the resources needed for war. Assyria is mentioned here, since they were the main political and military threat to Judah and Israel in the 8^th century, as they did indeed conquer Israel and other more northern states during this time. Therefore, Judah would not be experiencing the economic boom as suggested above, because of the more potent threat that Assyria imposes in this theory. The historical prophet, Isaiah would have condemned either of the above strategies of Judah in response to threats, as bad for the homeland and wrong foreign policy (as the prophet did not desire Judah to be either pro or anti-Assyria, but to be pro-God⁹).

Other options for whom the indictments of this text are against include: the Assyrians themselves if they were pressuring the King to give a steeper tribute, the wealthy Samarians from the North who may have come down to Judah after losing their land to the Assyrians, or this passage could be addressed futuristically to a Judah in exile (351). The first two cases are unlikely as they lack scholarly support. However, the third option of this passage referring to the upcoming exile is interesting, because “this would be an appropriate form of punishment since the Assyrians and later the Babylonians tended to exile only the upper echelons of society (355).” However, this theory also seems unlikely because of literary context in relation to chapter 6.11-13.

There are a few other thoughtful possibilities given by Williamson that describe who is being referred to by Isaiah in v. 8 and 9 and how they may have acquired the houses and fields:

There may have been multiple situations of Latifundium¹, on a large scale. Latifundium occurs when large estates are being made by the taking of small land-owner’s property and reducing them to slaves or sharecroppers by foreclosure of mortgages. Thus the wealthy physically take ownership of the poor’s land and dwell in it.
There was a more modest form of land acquisition through a manipulation of mortgages by creditors. However, farmers stayed on land, but had to give much of the yield to the new owner.
The wealthy held the land as a pledge because a loan was taken out by the small farmer (which is a milder form of taking a person’s mortgage, so that it circumvented the law, so that taking someone’s land was not illegal). Thus the land was enjoyed as a usufruct for a shortened interim period of time and then gave it back.
The situation was less of an injustice but more of an inequality within a village or extended family unit, where the more powerful members exploited the weaker (351).

Williamson thinks the second and third options are more realistic. He also rejects the first and fourth options because they are too extreme. He suggests that there is not enough evidence throughout the prophets or archaeologically to suggest that latifundium was happening, since surely there would be more obvious statements about it. And due to the time period in the 8^th century the holding of land for a long period of time was probably hard to do due to threats of war from smaller nations around and Assyria. The fourth option seems too mild to be worth stating in Isaiah. As options two and three indicate, maybe it was not the land that the wealthy wanted, but it was the produce from it. Therefore, it was not necessary to own the land. However, this would mean that the punishment would need to go beyond mere isolation in the land as in v. 8-9 to be of fitting punishment. Therefore, it is also necessary that the land not produce as had been expected as in v. 10. Now all reasoning for acquiring an abundance of land has a proper punishment (352).

In all cases and theories articulated, every one of them in some way poses those who join house to house and field to field as a wealthy or privileged group (and they are almost always a minority group as well). Also, the original small farm owners of the land are always the odd-persons out in the equation. It is also proven (and it nearly goes without obviously stating throughout the entirety of the paper) that in every case of the wealthy acquiring more land than needed their effort is counter-productive. God, or an over intensification of the use of the land (due to not observing the practices of the fallow year) will not allow the land to produce as much as the opportunists wish.

Therefore, it follows that it best for the country to allow small farmers to own and manage their land so that the optimum amount of yields can be produced due to the likelihood that agricultural rules in the Torah will be followed more carefully (rather than rich land owners who are already bending the rules). Additionally, every effort by the self-indicted is ironic, as the quest of gathering more land only creates lonely and an unproductive land for the wealthy. Thus it is proven that God or the prophet wants to maintain the system of passing down land ownership within a family, because it is this tradition that provides the best environment throughout the nation for observing the laws of justice and equality that the Torah desires. However, Williamson shows that land ownership should really be thought about as he says, “Ultimately the land was God’s gift to his people and that no one ‘dwelt’ there except by his grace (354).” Therefore, whoever owns the land should remember that it is God’s. It is not a resource to expand one’s wealth, but it something very sacred that should be treated as such.

Bibliography

Brown, Francis, and S.R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, eds. The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., 2006.

Childs, Brevard S. Isaiah. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2001.

Davies, Eryl W. Prophecy and Ethics: Isaiah and the Ethical Tradition of Israel. Sheffield, England: JSOT Press, 1981.

Oswalt, John N. The Book of Isaiah Chapters 1-39. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1986.

Owens, John Joseph. Analytical Key to the Old Testament: Vol. 4 Isaiah-Malachi. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House Co., 1989.

Tucker, Gene. The New Interpreters Bible: Vol. 6. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2001.

Williamson, H. G. M. Isaiah 1-5. Great Britain: T&T Clark International, 2006.

¹ Title is taken from Davies’ book on page 66.

² This latter point of injustice in agriculture will be addressed to the class in my forth coming presentation. Though I will not address the state of injustice of modern agriculture in our society or others in this paper; I decided to briefly state this to grab the attention of listener who may not be interested in agriculture by showing that it was an injustice that is still alive and to indicate that I feel that the scripture is still meaningful for our culture.

³ Though the examinations of these Hebrew quantity measurements bear some interesting insights they do not add much to the thesis of my paper and will be sadly excluded from articulation.

⁴ Davies, Prophecy and Ethics, 68.

⁵ This is generally the time period when these passages took place due to the historical references that surround chapter 5, any attempt to be more exact than the 8^th century is largely theoretical due to a lack of specific references within this particular text. Nevertheless, I Isaiah, chs 1-39, is popularly thought to happen within and around the 8^th century. Moreover, Davies and others (Williamson, Oswalt) claim that the kingships of Jeroboam II in Israel and Uzziah in Judah have much affect for the environment of this passage (65).

⁶ This would describe most of villages and towns in Israel and Judah, if not the countries as wholes.

⁷ Also if a crop did poorly one year then it would become necessary to borrow seeds from somewhere else so that the next year’s crop could be planted, since the previous year’s seed could not be saved.

⁸ From Holladay’s book The Kingdom, 383-86.

⁹ This shows that if the people were not firstly for God slowly injustices such as the distributive kind here would creep into the culture of Judah and many more laws would be bent.

¹ Latifundium is ancient Roman term for a large farm worked by slaves. Biblical scholars have adopted this term in order to describe what is going on in certain passages of the Hebrew text, especially in Isaiah and Amos.

Current Crisis of Ag in Gaza

2009-02-02T00:38:00.000-05:00

Conflict leaves Gaza's agriculture in ruins

A ceasefire may be in place, but extensive damage to Gaza's agriculture now means that the 1.4 million people of the Gaza Strip face "acute shortages" of food, says the UN.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization announced Friday that nearly all 10,000 small farms in Gaza have been damaged and many completely destroyed following attacks by Israel that started on 27 December. Some 27,500 people that depend on farming or fishing have lost land, crops, equipment, or animals.

The FAO's Luigi Damiani, who has surveyed the damage, told New Scientistfrom Jerusalem that a lot of the damage was done by Israeli tanks, and the bulldozers that went with them. "On land used to run tanks, cultivation has been wiped out, including the strawberry fields in the north," he says.

Tanks also damaged irrigation pipes and wells. "We had just distributed small containers for crop storage," says Damiani. "They're all destroyed."

Unexploded shells

Meanwhile an FAO brief says shelling destroyed greenhouses, poultry barns, feed stores and animals (pdf format).

The tiny fishing harbour near Gaza City was "devastated" by naval barrages, says Damiani, while even in places untouched by tanks or shelling, crops and animals left untended have suffered.

Livestock may continue to die, he says, because feed is limited, and "you can't go grazing anywhere". This is partly because of risks from unexploded ordinance, and partly because a no-go zone inside the border has been widened from a few hundred metres to three kilometres, taking in a large chunk non-urbanised land.

Funds needed

Aid agencies such as the World Food Programme are bringing emergency rations into Gaza. But, the FAO says, "People are facing an acute shortage of nutritious, locally produced and affordable food. Meat and animal protein is generally unavailable."

Gazan farmers mainly grow fruit and vegetables, which in the past they exported to earn money for staple foods. When Gaza's border crossings were closed by Israel in 2008, food exports, and earnings, stopped.

The FAO wants $6.5 million to start rebuilding, and to bring in seeds and fertiliser for the planting season in February, so some crops, such as tomatoes and cucumbers, might be ready in two to three months. The organisation also wants to bring in animal feed and to repair orchard irrigation to save surviving trees and herds.

16:40 30 January 2009 by Debora MacKenzie

A good use for Coke

2008-12-18T00:26:00.001-05:00

cola pesticides

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fpEgurO-ec...

Indian farmers using Pepsi and Coke as pesticides

The Greatest People on Earth (at least my part of it) *please read post and reserve judgement on my corniness with the photos

2008-12-07T00:51:00.010-05:00

so i have a problem of polishing whatever i write to the point that it is good enough for me. i recognize that is usually a good thing. but it keeps me from being productive. i am not a "stream of consciousness" writer like James Joyce, though i wish that i was more than i wish i could play an instrument well (which is a ton). anyways this is my solution: Firstly i will not correct any mistakes, so if there is a misspelling or grammar

error or something is wrong with my sentence structure I AM NOT FIXING IT and i have to piss SOMETHING FIERCE and i will not let myself go until i finish this blog and write everything i want to say: which is a lot and comes straight from my heart. so get ready and pray that i don't mess up my bladder cuz THIS IS NOT COMFORTABLE.

so here is the deal: i have great friends. the problem is that i divide them into two groups. which is completely unhealthy. the RA group and the Mercy house guys (which a grouping of this term doesn't exist anymore except sometimes in my head). this bad becaue i see people as groups not as individuals. like they are. i dont feel connected with some of them alot. they challenge me, they are genuine, and they are striving for something good even if that is just inner peace or being an entirely new and different kind business person. both i respect and love. i have been too selfish lately, selfish with my time. most of my time is spent thinking about me. i need to give that time more to these guys.

i am sorry if you are reading this now and our relationship could be better. i feel at fault. too many times i am not real. i am not true to myself and to you in a conversation. like the quote from i heart huckabee's "how am i not myself" i ask the opposite "how am i myself?" i often don't feel like i am and it keeps me from being close and real and intimate with friends. it takes away from laughs, from a deep conversation going deeper. i hate this. i just read martin buber for the first time for an ethics class. and i want to value you for just your being, entirely not labeling you and relating to you in an eternal way.

i feel out of place. i wish i was more with certain friends that i fear may be getting away. i feel connection being lost in something that could be a lifelong collaboration towards the betterment of eachother and thereby the earth. i think this is happening or could happen with friends like isaac, ian, ben, joe (4 people whether they know it or not i admire and look up to and love) it has already happened with some people. maybe this is entirely too dramatic and i will end up regretting being too sentimental sooner than later. but things just seem on a slippery slope. like we end up not living together next year/this summer and then we become casual friends - a scary thought for me as i realize i have more casual friends than best friends - and then we over the years lose touch. this would be a huge tragedy for me. so i may regret saying for its sentimentality but it seems pressing enough in my head right now to express it.

thing is i just generally feel scared about the future. what the hell is going to happen? with me, my friends, what we do. i hope it is together. i hope i find community. god, i hope i can find a toliet soon! but i am not quite done.

abbie, you are my best friend. i dont know what i want. i cant change that. you know this stuff, but it seems to make more real to write it. i dont know what will come, i have to be true to myself, to you, and the future. i love what you are doing with yourself and your life. it has been awesome to see you grow. i hope i can recognize you as a new person, it is a daily struggle. this doesnt completely capture all i should say or what i could say. sorry about that

UGGH - like a Achebe said, 'things fall apart" what is worth pursuing? i know some of these friends i mentioned earlier are and other things and people are not. i cannot waste time anymore. it so tempting for me to go it alone. sometimes i love it. but it is always depressing. i cannot make it alone. nor should i. i am not alone. i am not alone. i am not alone. i have great friends like josh, matt, kyle, wieler, todd, joe, paul, tandy, basically all the smith ras and trent and so many more that is too much to name and some mentioned above who have helped me through so much. if i ddint have you i would have went insane at some points. so thank you. thank you for showing me life is best done together. that all is not darkness. may i be there when you need it too. i hope i can be a better friend. you guys deserve it.

this has been a throw back and prayer for the future. i hope this future is mutually wanted. i did this stream of conscious style. so one on hand i am pretty proud of that in one sense bcause i have never done this before, so it is kinda of groundbreaking. however, i may have left somethings and some people out. for that i apologize. i love you too just as much. so i did correct some stuff, but in my defense not that much. now it is time for me to take a wizz.

God Bless

Joseph

So True. So Funny.

2008-12-04T13:07:00.012-05:00

This is a great clip passed along from Mike Gentry from the Onion.

Also check out my previous blog. It was good for me to write. It made want to travel. To see those faces i do not know in hopes that it will radically change my heart.

or try http://www.theonion.com/content/video/usda_official_takes_courageous

There's a whole lotta singings never gonna be heard, Disappearing everyday without so much as a word

2008-12-04T09:27:00.006-05:00

Oppression of the farmworker is well documented throughout history. Agriculture has been used throughout history to exploit people. Look at slavery in America and colonialism abroad. The thing about it is that this is not over. Internationally in the in Latin and South America, Africa, and Southeast Asia (especially) workers are now living in a modern day slavery, serving a different master. No longer are there formal slave owners or masters or kings. The enslaver of today is the global corporation. Any company that uses an agricultural product (such as chocolate, coffee, rice, corn, sugar cane, fruit, ect) for mass consumption must be suspect. The ways that corporations have a responsibility towards fair wages and sustainable lifestyle of the people that make their products is shrouded in mystery. In fact there is not much accountability for these companies. No one knows the practices of companies such as Coca-Cola, Nestle, and Folgers because the companies have become very good at sweeping their injustices under a rug. And all of this is for Western consumer that usually has everything they need to live well already and of course cheaper price. (Even narcotics is involved in this scheme. Though things like cocaine are not controlled by corporations, the practice also enslaves many in Latin/South American Countries (this is why you shouldn't by weed folks)). Anything to save a penny. Too cheap of a price. The prices at supermarkets like Wal-Mart are just not logical. Things do not cost enough in order to pay people fairly, even when moving mass quantities. The overconsumption of this culture further contributes to the degradation of land and degraded souls abroad. These are people we do not know. These are farmers whom we do not have a face to put with the products and ingredients they cultivate. We need to know these faces if we ever will treat them like our fellow human-beings and end the modern day agricultural slavery that is very much alive today. The price of Organic, fair trade, and local food, though it may be higher is the right price. It is the right price to end oppression. This is why everything we buy matters so much. Spending a bit extra is the new civil rights movement. It is the new way to end discrimination. We must do research and know where our dollars are going. please buy, when you have to, with the image of a better world in mind. Agriculture can be a beautiful thing, but in too many places worldwide it represents a disgusting representation of slavery. Let's try with our might to curb our consumption, the way we buy, and to learn. To learn so that we can no longer be said to know not what we do. Let's know what we are doing and redeem which should be beautiful. Agriculture.

The Start of Chronicle

2008-12-02T19:16:00.007-05:00

i am beginning to hammer out a conception for this blog. rather than it be my own personal journal, contained with entirely personal things i would rather like to talk about something specific. Agriculture is something i want to learn more about. its history and its future. so forthcoming entries i am thinking will be about articles and things i have read in this area. so this blog would sort of a chronicle of my experience and growth in understanding agriculture.

To confess something i am a little ashamed of my agricultural past. i grew up on the farm, but was hardly involved with it at during any point when living at home except last summer while on break from school. all the resources and knowledge from my parents were there to learn everything there is to know about running a farm. i was very much uninterested in farming until i left home for college. now i am playing a catch up game. trying to learn all the stuff i should already know. however, i am glad that no matter how i came to it, i now have a passion for agriculture. it could very well be that if it was forced upon me like a chore, i may resent it at this point and fail to see the its value. i also realize that my lack of knowledge and on the family farm is not entirely my fault. My father, due to being tied to a career, is also not very involved with his own farming. He calls his style of agriculture: "farming by phone." this basically means calling other people to do all th uninvolvement e work for us and then splitting the profits with them. A good friend of family plants and harvests all of our monoculture crops and he does a great job. and in minutes its seems a sprayer can come through and chemicalize the entire crop. We as a farming family are not very well tied to our own land. we possess knowledge about it, but our lives are not built in a way to incorporate the land into our lives. others that do not live on the farm, know its rhythms better than us. this seems to be criminal but this is also not entirely our fault.
Modern agriculture has created such invincible seeds, such accurately destructive chemicals, and such advanced technology that hardly anyone is farming. Technology has taken away farming as a job and lifestyle. i was not needed to help on the farm and know it like the palm of my hand because technology knew it better. it has become more time efficient and all around preferable to let technology take the place of teaching children the ways of the land, how to plant a seed, and the joy of eating its fruits. in many ways agriculture has become too big and too complex.

This is just one of many issues that i think many more people can relate and that i wish to talk about. i will probably try to start finding articles and commenting on them. if you are reading this and you have come across some writings to do with ag. send them my way.

A Poem: In anticipation of new year

2008-11-15T19:30:00.004-05:00

May we Love and Be Loved

May we be free of mixed motives
Obtain a heart of purity
One that is set to will only one thing
Realizing the interconnectivity of the earth
Able to understand our role in our world
Willing to Forgive
Willing to be Forgiven
Ready to enter into a mess
Finally seeing change for the better

May we as the Tree
Sink roots into that life-giving substance
nourished to grow up and out
May we allow ourselves to be pruned...
when there are things attached to us -
that need to die
May we bloom and give fruit
To be shared - so that another Tree -
may take root into that life-giving substance

8.18.08
i wrote this on a night of silence in preparation of a new year as being an Resident Assistant in Smith Hall. As i reflected upon the summer and praying for guidance in a new year. this was my prayer for myself, my friends, and for the campus. It used the school theme for the year: Root, Grow, Bloom, which i rather like. and i have loved hearing reference and metaphoric allusions to it all year. it doesn't get old for me. i love the idea of having a theme that a whole community strives to understand and embody. It is a very up-building and connecting thing to do and it makes me appreciate and feel tied to the community i am a part of even more.

Reflections from Godspeed the Plough

2008-11-14T16:48:00.008-05:00

Godspeed the Plough was the name of the conference on Church and Agriculture that i attended last weekend. A group from Anderson went and i met up with them after coming from the memorable IU vs. AU basketball game in Bloomington. The conference was at Englewood church in Indianapolis.

I had been to Englewood before. To a New Monasticism conference or get together. I could easily discern that the church community there was continuing to grow, flourish, and tackle life together. very uplifting for me to see. just a lot of great people in the church doing very creative things, it was great to rub shoulders with a handful of them. it kinda puts a physical appearance on a lot of things that the church i'm a part of, The Mercy House is trying to do or may do in the future. They have a book review, publishing house, urban garden, beehives, they own a lot of houses around the block and fixing them up for people to live in, they make amazing homegrown meals, they have school, they were just starting a food co-op for their neighborhood, some of the people live close and in a tight community with one another and so forth. these are just some of things that i saw and i am sure there is much more. the church just seemed so simple but they were doing such radical things to help their world and their neighbors.

But as to the conference... it was also very inspiring. i have been at school for a couple months and have been away from agricultural initiatives since mid-August when school started. it was very nostalgic for me as i kept thinking back to my family's farm where i grew up and where i had a garden last summer. i kept getting visions on things i could improve and do anew next year and the years to come. This was especially true when sitting in on a break out session called Land, Art, and Agriculture. I have come to see agriculture as an art-form as of late. It is so interesting and stimulating how aesthetics and function can be so interwoven. in many ways these are so compatible that on a farm they are always present together. a farm is a lot like the recycling symbol. death brings new life and life brings death. the plants and food grown one year become next year's soil in a compost pile. livestock provide blackgold and other produce as they do favors for you around the farm as long as the farmer knows how to use them and keeps them fed. When widening my perspective of what a farm is i grew to appreciate everything in nature that was around me, because even the most miniscule things have tremendous purpose. Weeds can give indications of soil health, forests are gardens that we may never see the harvest of, water falls miraculously from the sky to keep everything vibrant, so many things were made for each-other to keep the farm and nature functioning as one organism. this cycle and this way of the earth never ceases to fascinate me.

I will post further on my experience at this conference in the near future and address what questions it forced me to struggle with and what i am learning as a result of the questions.

On Consumption

2008-11-13T18:18:00.004-05:00

This semester i have been studying a lot to do with Eastern philosophy and Religion. Where as in the West we emphasize 'the individual' the East emphasizes the community. in the West we praise success that move up and advances to something better. The East generally thinks it better to live in simplicity. for them the corollary is: the more stuff and attachments one has, the more anxious and miserable that person is likely to be. In the West we praise the good ingenious ideas but for the East: thoughts and beliefs are useless unless they are lived out. My biggest two role models comes out of Eastern Society: Jesus and Gandhi. Since i agree so much with the side of the world in which i do not live, i often start off many things by having a philosophical collision from the very foundation with most folks. i believe that many of our underlining ideas about how things are and the way they could or should operate is top-side down. that is why i absolutely love how people like Jesus can in so many words turn an etire mentality on its nose. the truth is often otherworldly and for us the East is that other world. imagine what it would be like to try to live like Eastern folks in America. If we truly lived it out i would straight up confuse and bring curiosity to folks. The truth, i am finding, is almost always subversive/counter-cultural like this. 2.4.08

In hindsight this has a lot to do with consumption. Really the east holds the mentality that the west lacks to solve the problem of over-consumption. however, the east is getting smaller and smaller. china, india and other formally eastern societies are more western like now. Really the struggle is between Globalization and Traditionalism. Globalization spreads the so called virtues of the west to the four corners of the globe. While traditional or eastern societies, who are often impoverished, take the new ideas as gospel because perhaps it provides a better way to survive. who knows, they may think. but there very often is a call to go back once trying out a new technology, economy style, ect. to save the earth from many of ecological problems, it would do us well to re-examine ancient wisdoms, provided usually from the eastern, ancient, cultures

What Kierkegaard Has Done to Me

2008-11-13T18:07:00.006-05:00

"I see it all perfectly; there are two possible situations - one can either do this or that. My honest opinion and my freindly advice is this: do it or do not do it - you will regret both." Kierkegaard

i always have a deep sense that there is something better somewhere else, and i am missing out on it. this is true, there are countless opportunities that i would love to take part in, but i will never have the chance. this has always disturbed me to the point that i never have been satisfied by my current situations. basically, it has led me to a state of depression. i always want to leave, to transfer, to change my major, to break up, to move out, to leave. i want another life than the one i am living. the above quote exemplifies my frustration. because if i i were to leave and choose another, altogether new situation, i would still regret not choosing one of the other choices. moreover, i would regret not fulfilling the situation that preceded it, leaving it unfinished and not completely matured. thus i will never be content, right? yet, i know that there is a way to be happy. i am in the situation i am in for some sort of reason, and i can choose to be content with that. no. this is too hard for me to do or say. there are too many passions left unrealized. i want to do it all. i want to see it all. i want to be a part of it all. but i cannot. my life in the span of human existence is rather unimportant, thus the goal is eternal not finite contentment and harmony. Harmony is a daily struggle. there must be hope of this and i shall move towards finding it. 3.2.08

2007-03-28T01:46:00.000-05:00

around anderson university, students are almost too familiar with the phrase 'Looking in, Living Out,' it is the school motto for the year. for some reason i was thinking about it the other day and i realized something troublesome about the way i live. i do not embody the au motto. the phrase that would more accurately characterize my life would be more like, Living in, Looking Out. so for whatever it is worth, it was gutwrenching for me to come to the realization about how i truely live. i have been drawing conclusions about issues/problems without actually expriences them, i have been anti-social, unauthentic, ungenuine, shallow, hypocritical, and a self-serving person. this has in turn affected the relationships i still have and could have with other people. this affect (or effect whatever the differnence is between those two god foresaken words is) has cheapened my life because i am not as connected with people as a person should be. i need to get out more