11-17-14<\/p>\n
A few years ago I moved from San Diego to Michigan (people in Michigan STILL ask me why. Not only why I moved from a place like San Diego\u2026 but why to Michigan?) (Long story, not for here.) But one thing I missed in San Diego, after having lived most of my life around New York City, in the New England-to-Philadelphia corridor, was Autumn.<\/p>\n
Calendar photos cannot fill the void. Neither can videos nor, if such things exist, air-fresheners with fragrances named Burning Leaves, or even Rotting Leaves. The aromas of Autumn, once inhaled, become part of your DNA, at least the nostalgic and sentimental mitochondria. The smell of ripe apples in the orchard; the elixir provided by the first blast of cold, clean, crisp air filling your lungs; and, yes, the smell of burning leaves.<\/p>\n
Some of that has been stolen from us by dictatorial bureaucrats who prohibit \u2013 I think everywhere in the United States \u2013 the burning of leaves in backyards or township facilities. They are protecting our (yearning) lungs, you see, and keeping the air pure. Yes. If they had been around in 1868 Chicago, there would have been draconian prohibitions of lanterns, cows, and probably O\u2019Learys, across the fruited plain, subsequent to the famous fire.<\/p>\n
And I have not even mentioned, partly because it can be experienced better than described, the glorious colors of Fall. God\u2019s palette. <\/p>\n
The suppression of leaf-burning is much more than a denial of primal olfactory pleasure. For all of mankind\u2019s history there has been a warp and woof of life, irretrievably timed by the changing seasons, just like winding an old clock maintains the comforting sound of the pendulum\u2019s ticking. I tell you the truth: the comforting ticking of my grandfather’s clock in quiet moments is more important to me than the time on its face during busy moments. <\/p>\n
The uncountable companions of time\u2019s progression \u2013 call it Nature\u2019s Choreography \u2013 are fast disappearing, thanks (or blame) to modern life.<\/p>\n
Different than phenomena like verifiable weather cycles and crackpot predications of global doom, I don\u2019t think we can dismiss the import of elemental transformations. Some things in history \u201chappen,\u201d but not for the better; some things in our basic lifestyles \u201cchange,\u201d clearly to our detriment. The earth handles ice ages better than humans are coping with revolutions in values, norms, standards, traditions, and our souls\u2019 inclinations toward faith and belief.<\/p>\n
We do not have to engage in disputes about evolution to recognize that mankind (anyway, north of the Equator and especially in the \u201cWest\u201d) all of a sudden has experienced abrupt changes in daily life-cycles, and life-cycles overall. We are evolving, rapidly. \u201cAll of a sudden\u201d \u2013 that is, relative to the sweep of history \u2013 we no longer have to regulate our activities by daylight vs. night-darkness. We generally are able to maintain larger pursuits without regard to the seasons. For instance, we no longer live without certain fruits and vegetables \u201cout of season\u201d because of chemicals and bio-engineering and transportation and refrigeration \u2013 not that the fruits and vegetables taste as good as our grandparents\u2019 did.<\/p>\n
Mankind\u2019s traditional fears of plagues and storms and thieves and oppressive rulers are, mostly, no longer everyday concerns. Surely this has caused an adjustment of self-assurance, community reliance, and faith. Hope and prayers have lesser roles as this new paradigm offers a \u201cmiddle class,\u201d a new station for its many citizens; and its governments replace the traditional roles of families, churches, and even God. Insecurity gave way to security, and in turn to prosperity, abundance, moral lassitude, and economic dependence. Democracy, leavened by irresponsibility, is threatening Anarchy. Liberty has led to license.<\/p>\n
At one time the majority of mankind depended on harvests \u2013 as we return to thoughts of sniffing the air for Autumn aromas \u2013 and the insecurity of harvest bounty made cooperation, thrift, planning, and prayers as natural as seeding and cultivating to those who farmed. And so in other basic pursuits. These matters manifested causation, not mere correlation. It is how life worked, and, we are persuaded, should work. But no longer does work. Where farmers once trusted for months to God, the weather, lack of pestilence, and the sweat of harvesters\u2026 now supermarket shoppers get annoyed if winter tomatoes are out of stock until tomorrow.<\/p>\n
This is called progress. <\/p>\n
Call it what you will, but I believe that cultural dislocations of this most basic sort have implications that far outstrip the matter of fruit on our plates or night baseball or air-conditioned malls, all contrasted with the lifestyles of our recent ancestors. While in the midst of these dislocations, we are loathe to notice and largely unable to consider the radical changes in the human story. The timeline becomes the lifeline.<\/p>\n
The most significant change has been a loss of faith. Our prosperity and liberty, because we have not been careful to nurture the elemental values, have \u201cfreed\u201d mankind from reliance on God. Never has a civilization self-destructed so fast in this regard. Partly because we have seemingly tamed the weather and the clock and the calendar and eating patterns and the soil and infirmity (our second-greatest blind spot, in my opinion), we are not merely rebellious toward God, but indifferent to Him.<\/p>\n
This is clearly regression. <\/p>\n
Even the most primitive of societies acknowledge some sort of god; in all peoples \u2013 except contemporary Western civilization? \u2013 there is a yearning to worship, to serve something greater than ourselves. In the West, our vestigial consciences want the government, impersonally and by coercion if necessary, to tend to matters of charity. <\/p>\n
If, during these few ticks on Eternity\u2019s clock where we find ourselves right now, we seem to get along without God\u2019s daily counsel and protection, it does not mean He is not here. He is here, and I think we can agree that the God of Love nevertheless feels wounded. The Bible says He can be a “jealous God.” He is angry; He should be, if His Word is true.<\/p>\n
And despite our prosperity and liberty, Western civilization finds itself unsure, self-doubting, violent, confused, insecure, unhappy, immoral, and adrift. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few,\u201d Jesus said (Matthew 9:37). But He also used the analogy of the harvest in Revelation (14:14ff) about Judgment on mankind, the great sickle gathering clusters of grapes for the winepress of God\u2019s wrath. These words \u2013 and the truth of our situation, a lost and sinful generation \u2013 should make us shudder.<\/p>\n
We have work to do here: God\u2019s will for our lives is manifest. We seek to know it; we yearn to please Him. But aren\u2019t there times, maybe as Autumn gives way to Winter and things around us are dying \u2013 and at this point in history when mankind resists not only God\u2019s will but His ordained ways \u2013 that you just feel like going Home?<\/p>\n
+ + +<\/p>\n
Gospel Blues? The message of today\u2019s essay receives its coda in a classic Charlie Rich song. Sung here by Trisha Yearwood and Bonnie Raitt; Jools Holland on
\npiano (his late-night UK TV show is \u201cLater\u2026\u201d). That his blues playing is not quite that of Charlie Rich or Ray Charles, each of whom recorded this song, surely says more about them than about Jools or anybody else. Yet this is a powerful performance of the song and its challenging lyrics.<\/p>\n