It is strange, but I started this blog as a method of informing about threats to our civilization.
I no longer care about our civilization. In fact, I have gotten to the point where I see our civilization as largely a threat to my family, my religion, and my way of life.
I have been able to say in the past that at least our civilization has wrought some good things. Mozart, Rembrandt, and Concrete Blonde would be good examples. Yet why is that art of specialists so much better than the art of the community? A small tribe singing around the campfire some fine spring evening undoubtedly had a far greater time than you and I would listening to a recording. The best of art was painted on a cave wall for all the dwellers within to see and admire.
There are those who identify themselves more strongly as participants of this civilization than as human beings, and they are generally threatened by my musings on these topics. It's disturbing to realize that all man has wrought may very well be sin.
These days I've got time on my hands before the gardening season really ramps up, and I wonder what the meaning of life is supposed to be. I am prayerful of this topic, but it seems God only smiles at me as if to say, "I left that for you to discover, my son."
So far, I can only define that meaning of life in terms of what it is not. It is not a large bank account. It is not travel. It is not leisure and luxury.
5 comments:
I have to go back to my chatechism as it is the only thing that makes sense to me.
The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.
Whatever it takes to do that.
I honestly, honestly doubt anyone is "generally threatened by my musings on these topics". I think it is more of a morbid fascination with the vaguely unhinged.
I think that ladyhawthorne has it right. As for what Margie said, I know that people smile at me when I use a weed-whacker or chainsaw to work along the road, yet look at me strangely when I use a scythe or an axe. People seem threatened by anything they don't understand.
42.... ;)
Seriously though I think the meaning of life is just living, doing something real every day. I have spent so much of my life doing, running, catching up, trying to keep up and it is a waste. Getting up every morning and doing things that create life, feed life and bring nourishment and beauty to people is what really makes me feel like I am living.
It's been a (long, long) while since I last checked in here, Ernie. My internet time is so sparse as to maybe check e-mail once a month; perhaps spend parts of a couple days a year on HT when the noise on our dial-up allows and I can do nothing else of importance. I think that's partly because it's gotten to the point that I don't care either. I find that I've lost all patience dealing with the willfully blind; that I can no longer 'suffer fools gladly' to any degree - I've got far more productive and enjoyable things to do with my time, like turn over the manure pile to keep it digesting before it goes on the hay field, or cut firewood for next year, or attempt to keep the hormonally driven turkeys out of the crazy (literally) neighbor's yard that has such great nesting cover, or make ice cream, or catch a nap on the floor by the wood stove, or reflect on the meaning of life (and it isn't "what is 7 times 9?", or 42).
It keeps coming back to Scripture (paraphrased so I don't have to go look up the exact verses from Exo, Deut and Matt): the first great commandment is to love YHWH, your God, with all of your being (and doing), and the second is like unto it: to love your neighbor no less than yourself. Loving God, the Creator of all things, is relatively easy. Figuring out just what "loving my neighbor" (even the crazy one) looks like has perplexed people since before the Flood. Living out those two "simple" demands, day to day, is about the hardest thing I've ever attempted to do, but I take some comfort that even Christ found it difficult at times. "Love" may be long suffering, but is not always kind and gentle (Whom YHWH loves, He chastens), and how do I apply that to my neighbors as well, especially when they "don't want to hear it"? Back to my knees in prayer, and leave the moving of their hearts to Him.
I'm glad for the blog (and personal) change, Ernie. Civilization has always been on the brink of disaster (always by their own doing), and Scripture is littered with examples of the masses on the "broad way" that in very clear terms we are told leads to a bad end. And while it may seem necessary to shout from the rooftops "PAY ATTENTION, YOU FOOLS!", personally i find it far better to endeavor to perfect my own life first (to remove the plank from my eye), to live as an example, and to 'cast my pearls' (such as I've found them) among those few who have eyes to appreciate them for at least a good measure of their real value. Sorta like planting seeds - you can only do so where the soil is ready to accept them, and you can only fertilize, prune and expect fruit from the ones that come up and grow (with all their might).
Blessings on you and your house.
Andy
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