Splitting Wood
29/09/13 05:15
I can tell by the general stiffness in my shoulders this morning that I spend a few hours with a chainsaw yesterday. We’re working hard to get one of our wood piles cleaned up. We had two crews running splitters and we decided to use the chainsaw to cut up pieces that were too long for stove wood. There is a lot of wood in our churchyard at the moment and we need to start delivering it. October and November are our big months for deliveries, but we will continue deliveries as long as people need wood.
There is something about working together that creates connections between people. As we work we talk and joke and learn about each other’s families and lives. We feel more closely connected than we might had we spent our time in other ways. Of course there are a lot of ways to draw close to people in a church. Small groups such as bible studies often help to forge deep connections. Worshiping together creates shared experiences and shared memories. We meet at the table, whether it is sharing a snack after worship or a full meal. There are fellowship groups and craft groups and a lot of other opportunities for people to connect.
The church provides points of connection for people who might not otherwise meet. One of the places where this is fun to observe is with the youth of the church. Our town has two large high schools. Most of our youth go to one of those schools. There is also a Roman Catholic high school and a multi-denominational Christian high school as well as an alternate school that is part of the school district. Since the youth spend so much of their time at school it is natural that they form friendships with those who go to the same school as they do. However, the church provides an opportunity for students of different schools to connect, form friendships, and get to know one another.
We also provide connections between people who work in different places, belong to different service clubs, participate in different political parties and have different points of view. Because of the history and general organization of our particular congregation, we also gather together people with widely varying theologies and belief systems.
Providing a place and a context for people who are different from each other to connect is an important ministry that we offer. It sounds trite, but I think that it is very important – and very rare in today’s society.
There are plenty of opportunities for people to gather together with those who are similar to them. Sometimes it can be difficult to listen to ideas with which you disagree and it can be uncomfortable to be with people who are very different from you. Increasingly people watch only the cable channels or Internet videos with which they agree and avoid ideas and interpretations of events that are different from their own. Instead of this grand mixing bowl of different cultures, ideas and approaches that is the vision for our country, we divide into small sub-groups and surround ourselves with people who are similar to us. When we do so both the larger society and we are poorer for it.
When you are primarily associate with people with whom you agree and are similar you can quickly form an inaccurate picture of the culture. It begins to feel as if there are only two groupings of people: them and us. We often perceive others to be only one group, instead of the wonderfully diverse collection of ideas and attitudes that in reality it is. This kind of perception is common in politics. In the US, with only two major political parties, people tend to associate with one or the other. Then we tend to think that those who associate with the other party are all the same and all think alike. In reality there is a wide range of political beliefs and convictions within both of our political parties. It is likely that there is a person in the other party who is closer to our real convictions than are those at the extremes of our own party.
Unfortunately, our national legislature does not seem to be interested in looking for these connections. They seem unwilling to recognize the opportunities for compromise and the search for common ground. Winning the next election is far more important to many legislators than governing effectively. It is a sad reality of the current state of American politics.
So here is my solution. I think that we need to get a very large woodpile somewhere near the U.S. Capitol. Perhaps we could take part of the parking lot that is behind the building. People from all over could donate trees that have been cut down. The cost of transporting trees to the Capitol would be small in comparison to other costs generated by the legislative process. Then each Saturday morning the Senators and Representatives could gather to split wood together. There wouldn’t need to be any other agenda other than working side-by-side and shoulder-to-shoulder. The only rule is that we wouldn’t allow there to be Republican splitters or Democrat splitters. The legislators would be required to work together toward the common goal of getting the wood split. There would be no need of electing leaders. What leaders were required could emerge through hard work and dedication instead of being chosen by other means.
I’m thinking that splitting wood might be a good remedy for many different circumstances. Religious leaders, locked in ideological or theological differences, could be required to spend a half-day splitting wood together each week. Divorcing couples could be sentenced to the woodpile before splitting up households.
Of course this would generate an awful lot of firewood. But returning to heating our homes with firewood might generate less global warming than all of the hot air that is escaping form the halls of the legislature at the current moment of history.
It seems like it might be worth a try.
There is something about working together that creates connections between people. As we work we talk and joke and learn about each other’s families and lives. We feel more closely connected than we might had we spent our time in other ways. Of course there are a lot of ways to draw close to people in a church. Small groups such as bible studies often help to forge deep connections. Worshiping together creates shared experiences and shared memories. We meet at the table, whether it is sharing a snack after worship or a full meal. There are fellowship groups and craft groups and a lot of other opportunities for people to connect.
The church provides points of connection for people who might not otherwise meet. One of the places where this is fun to observe is with the youth of the church. Our town has two large high schools. Most of our youth go to one of those schools. There is also a Roman Catholic high school and a multi-denominational Christian high school as well as an alternate school that is part of the school district. Since the youth spend so much of their time at school it is natural that they form friendships with those who go to the same school as they do. However, the church provides an opportunity for students of different schools to connect, form friendships, and get to know one another.
We also provide connections between people who work in different places, belong to different service clubs, participate in different political parties and have different points of view. Because of the history and general organization of our particular congregation, we also gather together people with widely varying theologies and belief systems.
Providing a place and a context for people who are different from each other to connect is an important ministry that we offer. It sounds trite, but I think that it is very important – and very rare in today’s society.
There are plenty of opportunities for people to gather together with those who are similar to them. Sometimes it can be difficult to listen to ideas with which you disagree and it can be uncomfortable to be with people who are very different from you. Increasingly people watch only the cable channels or Internet videos with which they agree and avoid ideas and interpretations of events that are different from their own. Instead of this grand mixing bowl of different cultures, ideas and approaches that is the vision for our country, we divide into small sub-groups and surround ourselves with people who are similar to us. When we do so both the larger society and we are poorer for it.
When you are primarily associate with people with whom you agree and are similar you can quickly form an inaccurate picture of the culture. It begins to feel as if there are only two groupings of people: them and us. We often perceive others to be only one group, instead of the wonderfully diverse collection of ideas and attitudes that in reality it is. This kind of perception is common in politics. In the US, with only two major political parties, people tend to associate with one or the other. Then we tend to think that those who associate with the other party are all the same and all think alike. In reality there is a wide range of political beliefs and convictions within both of our political parties. It is likely that there is a person in the other party who is closer to our real convictions than are those at the extremes of our own party.
Unfortunately, our national legislature does not seem to be interested in looking for these connections. They seem unwilling to recognize the opportunities for compromise and the search for common ground. Winning the next election is far more important to many legislators than governing effectively. It is a sad reality of the current state of American politics.
So here is my solution. I think that we need to get a very large woodpile somewhere near the U.S. Capitol. Perhaps we could take part of the parking lot that is behind the building. People from all over could donate trees that have been cut down. The cost of transporting trees to the Capitol would be small in comparison to other costs generated by the legislative process. Then each Saturday morning the Senators and Representatives could gather to split wood together. There wouldn’t need to be any other agenda other than working side-by-side and shoulder-to-shoulder. The only rule is that we wouldn’t allow there to be Republican splitters or Democrat splitters. The legislators would be required to work together toward the common goal of getting the wood split. There would be no need of electing leaders. What leaders were required could emerge through hard work and dedication instead of being chosen by other means.
I’m thinking that splitting wood might be a good remedy for many different circumstances. Religious leaders, locked in ideological or theological differences, could be required to spend a half-day splitting wood together each week. Divorcing couples could be sentenced to the woodpile before splitting up households.
Of course this would generate an awful lot of firewood. But returning to heating our homes with firewood might generate less global warming than all of the hot air that is escaping form the halls of the legislature at the current moment of history.
It seems like it might be worth a try.