Amber Waves of Grain

“If a man walks in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer. But if he spends his days as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making the earth bald before her time, he is deemed an industrious and enterprising citizen”.  - Henry David Thoreau

As I have written about in the past, there are agricultural fields around the college where I work.  On one side of the road that leads to the entrance, a crop of wheat was planted where last year’s corn once grew and I enjoy being a witness to the thousands, perhaps millions of beautiful amber colored stalks that “wave” in the wind.  Some mornings they wave me on into work and on other days I imagine they are waving me on a little further east…

There are colleges, hospitals, apartments, housing additions, restaurants and a multitude of businesses moving in and setting up shop and in the meantime, the beautiful countryside keeps getting pushed further and further east of this particular area.  Some days I long to keep driving, to see what is left and mourn yet another piece of earth that has been plowed over, hardened by cement, and “developed”, all in the name of progress.

There is something to be said for progress.  After all, this is America, the land of opportunity,  but is no longer America, the beautiful.  It has become a land littered with empty strip malls, abandoned homes, and endless construction.  It brings to mind the story of The Winchester House.  Sarah Winchester, who lost her husband and child and was told by a psychic that there was a curse on the family because of the terrible weapon created by the Winchester family, kept building onto her home after moving to California, so that she could “control the spirits who came to the house for evil purposes”.  (The Winchester story can be found at http://www.prairieghosts.com/winchester.html).  I wonder if we keep building and building, in spite of being on the verge of economic collapse, in order to shroud ourselves in denial about the evil consequences of greed and materialism that lurk around, seeking to destroy…

Oh how I long for a simpler time.  A time when families sat together on the front porch to watch the sunset or worked together in the garden, a time when everyone knew their neighbors, a time when grocery store owners and bank tellers knew you by name, a time when people stayed married and taught their children to respect authority, elders, and each other, a time when a man’s word was as good as gold, and a time when people worshiped God; not youth, beauty, or fame.

It saddens me to think that when my grandchildren grow up they probably will not even know what a field of wheat looks like.  I wonder if they will know that if you put about 50 of the grains in your mouth and chew a while it will become chewing gum…old farmers chewing gum.  That was something my mother showed me, perhaps it is time for me to pass it along.

“Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.  Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings”.  1 Peter 5:8-9