We in western culture have very little problem imagining
some pretty strange circumstances. For example, what would happen if as Moses
and Israel get ready to go into the promise land, the group of spies (Numbers
Chapter 13,14) are time transported into modern Israel. Upon their return the
dialogue begins, and the spies discuss what they have discovered. Picking up in
the new scenario, in verse 27-28:
Then they told Moses, and said: ÒWe went to the land
where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit.
Nevertheless the people who dwell in the land are strong; the cities are
fortified and very large, moreover we saw vehicles burning fossil fuel, and much
plastic.Ó
Then again in verse 32-33: And they gave the children of
Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, ÒThe land
through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and
all the people who we saw in it are men of great stature. There we saw cars and
trucks (vehicles burn fossil fuel and make much noise) and everything seems to
be made of plastic (made from fossil fuel) and we were like grasshoppers in our
own sight, and so we were in their sightÓ
Stopping to think about it, this dramatic change in
Israel, and most of the rest of the world, has only taken place in the last one hundred years, mostly
in the last fifty.
Several months ago, I made a statement about plastic
plants taking the place of reality in many of our churches. The Lord surely has
a great sense of humor, for that very night I had the opportunity to visit
another church that I had never attended before. There behind the worship team
was the largest forest of plastic shrubs I have ever seen collected in one
place at one time. I had to laugh, for we all are creatures of the culture of
plastic and fossil fuel.
As far as I can tell the only metal in this iBook that I
am writing this on, is in the handle, which I think doubles has the antenna for
the airport. Which is problably why it is metal at all. Actually, upon further
inspection, it may be some metallic composite material. That leaves a few
ounces of metal perhaps in the motherboard and some of the other working parts.
There is some plastic up on the property that I am
looking at buying for this ministry, but just as MosesÕ spies would be freaked
out by modern Israel, this land is essentially the way it was when Joshua and
Caleb spoke to the congregation (Numbers 14:7b-9), now that is really freaky to
me: ÒThe land we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land. If the
LORD delights in us, then He will bring us into this land an give it to us, Ôa
land which flows with milk and honey.Õ
Only do not rebel against the LORD, nor fear the people of the land, for
they are our bread; their protection has departed from them, and the LORD is
with us. Do not fear them.Ó
One of the main goals of this new place is to provide a
safe location by which many people can move beyond our fossil fuel and plastic
dependence, into a world where time matters in a different sort of way. A place
where the hurry of this world can be washed away, like sand not in an hour
glass, but in the Ômighty Columbia River as it rolls on to the seaÕ.
Over the last few days I am surprised in the difference
of the world here, in the fossil fuel dependent culture of Seattle, and the
need to use less energy over at the Little Dalles as a means to achieve
tangible visible work. Part of this was brought on by reading a book called
ÒGrasslandÓ by Richard Manning. Manning is what I would call a Montana
environmentalist. Now everyone I have ever known who was raised in Montana
comes equipped with a Montana mentality, that is so different from the rest of
the mentality of the remaining United States, that it cannot be described in
words. It must be experienced, many times in dumbfounded amazement. ÒDo people
really think like that?Ó Answer, ÒOnly in Montana!Ó Add to the mentality a
strong environmentalist streak and you really have someone who can spin out a
tale, even in writing.
The Little Dalles facility is really a transition zone
between grassland and forest. Two of the biomes of ecology. That is the reason
that I bought the book, to gain some grassland insight, for even though I was
raised in the grassland and in the forest, by the time I came around, the
grassland was only wheat fields and the forest was a cool place for kids to run
around. The point of the book is that under the concept of manifest destiny,
for lack of a better term, America has tried to transform natural America into
a rational landscape of our own design. It really has not worked in the
grasslands, in the forest, or the desert for that matter.
This brings me to my own contribution to this weekÕs
endeavor. That is subsidies. Manning mentions them just enough to get my
thoughts properly alined, but when I began over the weekend to work on some
actual projections for the Little Dalles facility, I came to the conclusion,
there are no subsidies, for 40 acres along the Columbia River in NE Washington
state. The whole economy of Seattle (as well as the global free trade model) is
based on cheap fossil fuels and plastic (ceffap). In the Columbia Basin as well
as most of the rest of the irrigated American dessert, add to ceffap, cheap
water. In this drought year, the water used to produce potatoes in Quincy would
probably be at least 10-50 times more valuable being run through our
hydroelectric dams. In the spirit of the hemisphere trade talks last weekend in
Quebec City, ÒItÕs just a plot by governments and corporations to oppress the
people.Ó
Actually, if free traders truly are as good as the
protestors claimed, I would quickly jump on the free trade band wagon. But
should the Lord tarry, free trade is just the latest pipe dream of rational
western man to live beyond his natural constraints and to conform the world to
his own limited understanding. But
getting back to the point of Manning and my whole series on Enterprise
Symbiosis last year. Wishful thinking (and/or visualization, rationalization),
ceffap, has really a minuscule effect upon GodÕs green earth, or brown earth,
or blue earth. Eventually, just as
all will learn, the Creator and the rules that govern His creation and His
created, are really what matters.
But running the numbers as a good analytical,
engineering, management type, trained by some of the best in the world and by
the Creator himself, I understand what is the proper sequence of anxieties.
What concerns me is that there is about a $50,000 yearly shortfall at the
Little Dalles as a viable economic enterprise functioning in this ceffap world.
Put in another way, we can do all kinds of absolutely great and wonderful
things and at the end of the year, we wonÕt be able to pay for the property. Or
we could just do nothing and end up with the same shortfall. To confirm this,
is the fact that the present owner after spending probably over $200,000 of his
own money is back in California digging ditches, building drainfields and the
like, to make enough money to come back and retire on the acreage that he isnÕt
selling, in the adjacent woodland.
This gets me back to why I began to think about Moses and
the spies in the first place. The words of Joshua and Caleb ring true. ÒLORD,
fifty grand looks like a giant to me, but if you want me to do all this you
have trained me to do, it is your job to overcome this minor obstacle in your
sight, for your glory. That is what ministry is all about.Ó
As I said last week the name of the property was subject
to change without notice. As of this writing the name of the facility is the
ÒLittle Dalles Guest Community, of the Ministry of Creation, Fishers School for
Restoration Agriculture.
There are a number of ways to make up that monetary deficit.
Possible enterprise solutions include: wind energy; mining and quarrying which
is why people came into the area, and what I did before this; consulting in
enterprise symbiosis and other management endeavors; grant sucking (proposal
writing) which is what I did in the corporate world; as well as some teaching
workshops, megabucks or free. From the onset I have felt that this will include
probably four months of travel a year. My one physical limitation is that I
donÕt jet very well, so my feeling is to go somewhere in the world and work the
area and then go home, or elsewhere depending on the season.
I completed a book ÒThe Garden of GodÓ a few years ago,
but it hasnÕt been published. Some of it I would change, especially in
emphasis, but the basic premise of a primer of Christianity for 21st century
believers, has not changed. I also think there is a Enterprise Symbiosis book,
perhaps in editing some of the stuff done before, then tying it all together.
Books like those by Manning deserve a sound Biblically based version of much
the same thing. But in this age of ceffap, sadly to say most of the church has
sold its creation heritage for a stage full of plastic plants and an air
conditioned building on the right side of the interstate.
All the above really means, is that someone, somewhere,
with an interest in something above, or just in obedience to the Someone above,
must be inspired to help out . From there, we can begin to generate community
guests to help turn a well-housed stump ranch, into a land of milk and honey. A
NE Washington example of what has happened in modern Israel.