Of Kirk and Ale

I’ve been reading this classic work, which I would happily recommend to just about anyone, and found in it some really great quotes that Mr. Howard references.

Enjoy.

“How can a man learn to know himself? By reflection never – only by action. In the measure that thou seekest to do thy duty shalt though know what is in thee. But what is thy duty? The demand of the hour.”
– Goethe

“I will not cease from mental strife.
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand,
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England’s green and pleasant land.”
- Blake

“When drainage everywhere, with its double functions, restoring what it takes away, is accomplished, then, this being combined with the data of a new social economy, the products of the earth will be increased tenfold, and the problem of misery will be wonderfully diminished. Add the suppression of parasitism and it will be solved.”
– Victor Hugo, Les Miserables

“The difficulty felt about Communism…is that it interferes with man’s freedom to make demands for his many-sided nature, and to endeavor to satisfy those demands. It secures bread to all, perhaps, but it ignores the doctrine that man shall not live by bread alone. The future probably lies with those who, instead of pitting against one another, Socialism and Individualism, will seek to realize a true, vital, organic conception of Society and of the State in which both Individualism and Socialism will have a proper share. The bark which carries civilized man with his fortunes will thus steer an even course between the Scylla of anarchy and the Charybdis of despotism.”
– Daily Chronicle, 2nd July 1894.

“Human beings, in their present condition, may be likened to bees in the act of swarming, as we see them clinging in a mass to a single bough. Their position is a temporary one, and must inevitably be changed. They must rise and find themselves a new abode. Every bee knows this, and is eager to shift its own position, as well as that of the others, but not one of them will do so until the whole swarm rises. The swarm cannot rise, because one bee clings to the other and prevents it from separating itself from the swarm, and so they all continue to hang. It might seem as if there were no deliverance from this position, precisely as it seems to men of the world who have become entangled in the social net. Indeed, there would be no outlet for the bees if each one were not a living creature possessed of a pair of wings. Neither would there be any issue for men if each one were not a living individual being, gifted with a capacity for assimilating the Christian life-conception. If among these bees who are able to fly not one could be found willing to start, the swarm would never change its position. And it is the same among men. If the man who has assimilated the Christian life-conception waits for others before he proceeds to live in accordance with it, mankind will never change its attitude. And as all that is needed to change a solid mass of bees into a flying swarm is for one bee to spread its wings and fly away, when the second, the third, the tenth and the hundredth will follow suit; so all that is needed to break through the magic circle of social life, deliverance from which seems so hopeless, is that one man should view life from a Christian standpoint and begin to frame his own life accordingly, whereupon others will follow in his footsteps.”
—LEO TOLSTOY, The Kingdom of God is Within You

Last weekend my old roommate and his wife moved into my little community, New Town. We are now neighbors! In other exciting news, another old roommate and his wife moved into an apartment just a few minutes down the road! There is yet more exciting news! Some good friends of the Acorns, the Baca’s, are scheduled to come home from Uganda this month!

Fun, fun, double fun!

Henry’s pushing 4 months now. He likes to smile and laugh now, which is really exciting. He also sleeps more at night, which is more exciting than all other things mentioned above. But yeah, it’s really cool to see one’s own flesh and blood take form before your eyes. Henry’s a great baby.

The Acorns have been staying busy otherwise. Antonia recently went on a trip with her family to California while I stayed home and worked. Here in New Town I have started a little Cycling Club for political advocacy and weekly bike rides. I’m also competing in this year’s Bocce Ball tournament, which is fun (and funny). Some church friends and I have started a little Saturday with Aquinas discussion group that meets biweekly to celebrate beer and philosophy. It’s a lot of fun, like most things going on in my life these days (if you didn’t notice!). Is it any wonder that blogging feels like such a chore sometimes?
Intellectually I’ve been pretty lax recently. I read some Alvin Plantinga (who’s pretty much awesome) and Wendell Berry (still working on Jayber Crow) but not much else. I did buy a new book, “Garden Cities of To-Marrow” by Ebenezer Howard that should be in the mail soon. Maybe that will re-inspire me.

In the dark, muggy living room of my basement apartment in Rolla, Missouri one once would have heard a delicate childlike voice sing clearly over the top of simple acoustic instrumentation the words:

Look for me another day
I feel that I could change
I feel that I could change
There’s a sudden joy that’s like
a fish, a moving light;
I thought I saw it
rowing on the lakes of Canada.

The rhythm and melody was quickly picked up by my roommate, Jeff, who is privy to mad skilz on a guitar and blessed with a good singing voice. The song (The Lakes of Canada) and the musicians (The Innocence Mission) quickly became a favorite of ours. So, it should come at no wonder that 5 years later while hanging out over Memorial Day weekend we would reminisce about this song. What does come at great wonder though is that the very song, unbenounced to us at the time, had recently been covered by one of our new favorite musicians, Sufjan Stevens.

Therefore, I would like to share this great song with all. Here is Sufjan Stevens with The Lakes of Canada:

My brother Tyler and my friend Andy took a trip to Chicago last weekend. Total Cost ~$60.

How did we do it? MEGABUS. Total transportation costs were as follows:
1) MetroLink in St. Louis to and from Union Station: $4
2) Megabus to and from Chicago: $16
3) “L” tickets in and around Chicago: $6
Total transit costs = $26

With so little spent on transit we were still able have three good meals and beer without worries. Can’t beat that with a stick.

In Chicago we went first to the Loop and spent some time at a great little diner after recovering from the night on the bus (to save money on hotels we slept on the bus there and back). Afterwards we sat down with a map and list of googled bookstores, coffee shops, tobacconists, and other such stores we wanted to hit up while there. Once we located them on our map we outlined an efficient course to minimize “L” rides and headed out. In all we visited at least six distinct and sweet Chicago neighborhoods including Lincoln Park, Wriglyville, Wicker Park, the Loop, Goldcoast, and the University of Chicago campus. We even ran into another Chicago resident, Katharine, who had tickets to ride our very Megabus back to St. Louis with us. What a crazy coincidence! Sure enough, at 11:59PM Saturday night our new Chicago friend was in line for the bus with us.

The highlight of the trip was one of the following, I can’t make up my mind:
1) Walking into the Rockefeller Memorial Chapel at the University of Chicago
2) Eating at “Piece” pizzeria and microbrewery upon recommendation of Katharine (above)
3) Drinking ginger coffee at Metropolis

I’ve been long gone from the blog world. In fact, I don’t think I ever was a very good “blogger”. For some reason, every time I browse over to this here “Write a Post” tab in my blogging software my mind goes blank. Usually I just post some smart piece someone else wrote. Pathetic.

Anyway, I will give no promises but I am thinking about writing a bit more. I’ve got a happy, active kid now with a stay at home momma so I’ve been learning a bunch of “normal” stuff like changing diapers, running errands between feedings, cooking fast and easy meals with one hand, etc. and etc. Plenty of fodder for good posts methinks.

Also, and more importantly, I feel like FINALLY my life has a ring of normalcy and predictability in it. Ok, kids are never predictable, but I mean I’m finally settled in a house, have a steady job, have some good friends in the area, and am adequately involved in my community. I think I can finally schedule and plan.

So, friends, I hope to talk to you all again soon. God’s peace.

“For the answer, you need look no farther than the farm bill. This resolutely unglamorous and head-hurtingly complicated piece of legislation, which comes around roughly every five years and is about to do so again, sets the rules for the American food system — indeed, to a considerable extent, for the world’s food system. Among other things, it determines which crops will be subsidized and which will not, and in the case of the carrot and the Twinkie, the farm bill as currently written offers a lot more support to the cake than to the root. Like most processed foods, the Twinkie is basically a clever arrangement of carbohydrates and fats teased out of corn, soybeans and wheat — three of the five commodity crops that the farm bill supports, to the tune of some $25 billion a year. (Rice and cotton are the others.) For the last several decades — indeed, for about as long as the American waistline has been ballooning — U.S. agricultural policy has been designed in such a way as to promote the overproduction of these five commodities, especially corn and soy.

That’s because the current farm bill helps commodity farmers by cutting them a check based on how many bushels they can grow, rather than, say, by supporting prices and limiting production, as farm bills once did. The result? A food system awash in added sugars (derived from corn) and added fats (derived mainly from soy), as well as dirt-cheap meat and milk (derived from both). By comparison, the farm bill does almost nothing to support farmers growing fresh produce. A result of these policy choices is on stark display in your supermarket, where the real price of fruits and vegetables between 1985 and 2000 increased by nearly 40 percent while the real price of soft drinks (a k a liquid corn) declined by 23 percent. The reason the least healthful calories in the supermarket are the cheapest is that those are the ones the farm bill encourages farmers to grow.”

Taken from here.

Went and saw Andrew Bird with some friends last Tuesday. The concert was good, but not great. I was most impressed with the opening act, Cortney Tidwell, who I had never heard of before. Think of a more palatable and rocking Joanna Newsome that includes sporadic grooves and climatic endings so loud and powerful they nearly deconstruct themselves. Cortney was great live. I hope her recorded work does her music justice.

The greatest thing about Andrew Bird was 1) his amazing drummer who reminds me of a nerd with really great rhythm, infectious rhythm, and 2) Andrew’s personal story of living in a barn out near the Mississippi river for the past year (more?). Crazy guy. Unfortunately I was disappointed in his live performance. The man has talent, which is clear in his recorded work, but I think he was having a bad night/week. In any case, it was still very much worth the price of admission.

Henry Elijah was born at 5:43PM, Feburary 13th. He’s 6lbs 6oz, 19 3/4″

We must love both.

All agrarians must learn to love the city. All urbanists must learn to love the countryside.

The great story in the Christian faith encompasses a progression from the Garden to the City. And yet we are reading into the story if we were to assume that the city subverts or destroys the Garden. Rather, the apocalyptic vision of the city seems to celebrate the garden while displacing but not removing it. In the garden the “lion lays down with the lamb” and in the city the “children play in the streets.” The two are not at odds with each other. But they are different. They are both holy.

Cities are containers. They hold humanity in their built forms and within their walls the exchange of ideas, goods, trust, love, faith, and human kindness take place. Without cities there is no human flourishing. Without cities there is no fullness of life.

The country too is a place of beauty and life. In the air, fields, and rivers there is found the delicate ecosystems that support all life. Their life is our life. In the fields man turns soil and produces all manners of grain, fruit, and vegetables for food. In the rivers he finds fish, sanitation, and refreshment. In the mountains he finds birds, precious stones, and cool, crisp air. He also finds God.

Yet today in the heart of our cities we find empty lots and crime. In the countryside we find plastic houses and traffic. We are fast on our way toward destroying both life-giving sources. We are nowhere near the great Garden/City of which we catch an echo in the Christian story and in the longings of our hearts.

Are we really to take this vision of the heavenly Garden/City into our world and allow it to inform our art, architecture, and philosophy? It seems so both from faith and reason.

In the Christian story we find God calling man to cultivate the earth. He is to go forth from the garden to the four corners of the earth. This cross-shaped mission was not abrogated by the fall, it was just found to be impossible due to sin. But now that the power of sin is broken through Christ we are once again free to live out our mission – through the renewing breath of the spirit, the communal life of the church, and the feasts at His Table. It is through this Christ and His chosen means of grace that we find again the ability to accomplish this great work of cultivation. A Work of city building and farming. The vision for the “end” of this work, which seems to take the shape of a city and a garden, also seems to be the vision we are bring to this world. It is Christ who calls us to pray “thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”. Is it not in these heavenly images that we should take our cues? Let’s not forget the final image of heaven we see in scripture - the great heavenly Jerusalem coming down from Heaven to Earth.

In reason we find that man seems to be most happy either in the garden or in the city – and less so in the intermediate places. It is his relationships with others and/or with nature that brings him regular joy and happiness – yet he finds neither in suburbia despite its false claims, nor does he find them in the inhumane megapolises of the modern world. Most men seem to be in a fix. They are not able to resolve these deep longings given their circumstances and forces beyond their control. They seek deep relationships with man, nature, and God and yet cannot seem to get at more than one or two of these relationships.

The rural farmer experiences a deep connection with nature and sometimes God, but less so with other men. The megacity dweller experiences ample connections to other men but rarely sees similar connections with nature or with God. The suburban dweller sees neither a connection with nature nor with man and yet seems to have a strong connection with God. What we need is a place for all three relationships to thrive.

One possible vision of how this might be resolved can be found in Christopher Alexander’s “A Pattern Language”, Pattern #3 – City Country Fingers.

“If we wish to re-establish and maintain the proper connection between city and country, and yet maintain the density of urban interactions, it will be necessary to stretch out the urbanized area into long sinuous fingers which extend into the farmland…Not only will the city be in the form of narrow fingers, but so will the farmlands adjacent to it.”
“The maximum width of the city fingers is determined by the maximum acceptable distance from the heart of the city to the countryside. We reckon that everyone should be within 10 minutes’ walk of the countryside. This would set a maximum width of 1 mile for the city fingers”

Here we see the city and the country coming together. Each retains its distinct qualities and ALL citizens of this ideal city have easy access to the life giving beauties of each. Utopia? Absolutely. And yet, I think, just maybe, this longing for both community and nature is shared so deeply in the human person that cities such as this, or something similar, could in fact be created – and HAVE been created in history – if only common men were free again to do so.

http://www.thisamericanlife.org