A Free Man

Guess who gets to go see Wendell Berry speak in 5 days??!!! THIS GIRL.

Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front
Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.

And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery
any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
and shut away in a little drawer.

When they want you to buy something
they will call you. When they want you
to die for profit they will let you know.
So, friends, every day do something
that won't compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.

Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.

Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millenium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.

Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.
Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.

Listen to carrion -- put your ear
close, and hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.

Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?

Go with your love to the fields.
Lie down in the shade. Rest your head
in her lap. Swear allegiance
to what is nighest your thoughts.

As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn't go.

Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection. 

-Wendell Berry

Marshmallow Test

So hilarious.

The Line

Okay, this is my last post for the night, I promise. But if you have the time and haven't seen it already, this is definitely a worthwhile documentary that puts faces on poverty. And it's short and to the point, but in a really humanizing way.

Gollum

Yet another reason to go to New Zealand.

Perhaps Belated, But Still Good

An article Jim Wallis wrote about choosing a presidential candidate.

As a nonprofit, Sojourners (the magazine Wallis is editor-in-chief for) is subject to constraints on their political engagement and as a result, can't support or oppose any candidates. They've done a great job at meticulously keep their partisan stances out of their writing, and I think that very constraint has made the articles they've written in response to the presidential campaign especially good. They've been able to remain "committed to [their] mission, which is to 'articulate the biblical call to social justice, inspiring hope and building a movement to transform individuals, communities, the church, and the world.'” (Jim Rice)

New Obsession?

Bonsai trees.

Before today, I just thought bonsai was the name of a type of tree species. But no! My friend walked into the library today with a bonsai she had just bought, and it turns out, as we learned, that "bonsai" literally means "tree in a pot" in Japanese. (Maybe you already know this, in which case, just humor my naive excitement.) It's basically the art of taking cuttings of pretty much any kind of tree and pruning and caring for it a certain way that keeps it tiny. It's like how when you're a kid, you wish your kitten or puppy would stay little forever. Except that your little tree CAN stay little forever. And it looks like a real tree. A real MINIATURE TREE.

They bonsai-fy apple trees that grow real tiny apples:

You can grow spruce tree forests:

You can pretend it's fall all the time with a teenie flowering delonix regia:

OR, you can get a California REDWOOD. Can't you just hear it? "What's that on your desk?" "Oh nothing, just a real live miniature redwood."

Poop

I wonder how long in history people have been picking up dog poop. And in what cultures. And for what reasons. I think that'd be a really fascinating anthropological study.

628 Walk

I realize this is totally dated, but a friend introduced me awhile ago to the blog of a guy that did mission year and then walked 628 miles home and relied on the goodness of people to feed him and let him stay in his tent in their yards. The whole thing is pretty cool, but I just read the last blog he posted before he got home, and I really liked it a lot. Thought I'd share:

Are You Ever Scared?