I think often now of that old economy, which was essentially the same from a farm household that was fairly well-to-do, like that of Granny and Granddaddy Feltner, to the household of Dick Watson and Aunt Sarah Jane, which would be classified as poor. For many years now that way of living has been scorned, and over the last forty or fifty years it has nearly disappeared. Even so, there was nothing wrong with it. It was an economy directly founded on the land, on the power of the sun, on thrift and skill, and on the people's competence to take care of themselves. They had become dependent, to some extent, on manufactured goods, but as long as they stayed on their farms and made use of the great knowledge that they possessed, they could have survived foreseeable calamities that their less resourceful descendants could not survive. Now that we have come to the end of the era of cheap petroleum, which fostered so great a forgetfulness, I see that we could have continued that thrifty old life fairly comfortably- could even have improved it. Now we will have to return to it, or to a life necessarily as careful, and we will do so only uncomfortably and with much distress.
Increasingly over the last maybe forty years, the thought has come to me that the old world in which our people lived by the world of their hands, close to weather and earth, plants and animals, was the true world; and that the new world of cheap energy and ever cheaper money, honored greed, and dreams of liberation from every restraint, is mostly theater. This new world seems a jumble of scenery and props never quite believable, an economy of fantasies and moods, in which it is hard to remember either the timely world of nature or the eternal world of the prophets and poets. And I fear, I believe I know, that the doom of the older world I knew as a boy will finally afflict the new one that replaced it.
Is Berry correct as he speaks through Andy? He sure seems to have the "new world" pegged well... How uncomfortable will the church have to get to realize its obligation to turning the world upside down? Can the church even turn the world upside down again, since the Church as an institution has been a major player in forming the world as it currently is. What needs to give?
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Unfortunately, history shows that "what needs to give" is some sort of tragedy or great calamity in some form. Yet, for the generation we make up any event or tragedy is a short term lesson in the chaos of life and God's supposed non-existence. But who really know!?
Though I do think that there needs to be a necessary understanding of seasons, and not just in the sense that it is warm now and cold later. Seasons needs to be a part of how our life cycles. Our culture of "now" (cliche and well understood) is definately shows itself in materialism and short attention spans but it also is based in how we are fed what comforts we have allow us to do that was impossible in that "old world." A big lesson that can and should be learned from seasons is death. This "now" culture has no real grasp on death and a health response to it. W/out such and understanding there is a lot left hollow and valueless. (Thanks to Brother Cornel West for part of that last thought).
What do you think "needs to give?"
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