Thoughts on Grace: The industrialization of Personality
Ever wonder where you get your steak?
Yes, your steak. Twenty dollars later, and you are chewing a nice T-bone or New York strip, letting the commericialized A1 Sauce excite your taste buds.
Cow is so tasty!
But again, where did this cow come from?
Well, in today's world: the cow factory.
Those old rustic images of steer milling around on a large green field fenced by oak planks and a old man with a less-than-milk temperment, those images are nothing close to what actually happens. It turns out that cows are in jail. They have a small cell to themselves in a large complex. It is not fully enclosed, they do see the light of day and get some fresh air. If their window is large enough, they get the branding "0rganic".
Is there any grass in the Cow Gulag? Nope. What do they eat then? Corn.
Corn. Corn. Corn. Corn. Corn explodes from the ground in comparison to the expected grass and shrubs seen in cartoons.
Unfortunately, corn makes the Cow very very sick. Turns out corn is not the most nutritious consumable for Cows. So, when the Cows get sick, what do we do? Change the food? Nopes, fix the sickness: Antibiotics.
That is just to keep the cows healthy. That does not include the hormones and other growth-additives we feed cows so that they grow bigger and fatter faster.
The saying: "You are what you eat" haunts the populace these days, with fattier meats, and the antibiotics plugged into the cows, thus the steak, thus into us, causing many many problems. This is just with the food. This does not account for all the waste from these cow towers, nor the difficulty and pollution generated from maintaining these All-corn farming lots.
But hey, Cow is cow, right?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Perhaps we have over simplified too many things. Is steak different from Grass-fed cows and Corn fed and iron-housed Cows? Doctors and farmers say yes. Can we, the general populace tell the difference? Perhaps not.
Details, minor details. But when do the minor details matter?
The american agriculture is the perfect example of the american mindset. Simplify the product, Cows eat grass, but we could feed them corn for cheaper, and the difference isn't that noticable. This allows one farmer to only grow corn, and the other farmer to grow cows, allowing people to specialize. Sounds familiar doesn't it? It is the throws of the industrial revolution.
It has been done with the american education also. What's wrong with the stupid children of the world? It's the teachers! It's the obesity! It's television. The public is accustomed to some unilateral target of blame.
Some families have raised their kids under the rule: "having money makes you happy". Many years later, the child gets the dream and nets himself a large income, but yet hangs in manic depression.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There is a great inter-dependancy of ALL things. It is in nature, and it is in us also. In nature, grass feeds the cow, chickens can go where the cows have plowed for them, eating bugs out of the poop and turning it into nitrogen poop. Nitrogen then grows the grass in turn. And so the 3 part circle goes. To increase one particular animal, say cow, requires a matching chicken, and a larger sized field. If not compensated, sickness sets in, or one species is eliminated.
"Just read the bible more" Yes, that is often the answer to many problems, but it is that PLUS so much more. Reading the bible only gets you so far. Reading the bible should lead to actions that prove your faith. Those actions of love, kindness, and benevolence fall on your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. They are helped and cared for, and thus in turn care for you, and provide. From those interactions and problems that are shared, we are brought to the bible more, to see the ever expansive grace of our father. He can help divorcees! He serves the depressed! The gospel helps the discontent. How? We know from our friends; they have names; life stories! Their great difficulty only magnifies the lord even more.
There is so much inter-connectivity in the bible, in nature's creatures and life cycles. Even within our body, inter dependancy reigns supreme. To say the body is all lungs, or only a stomach with a support system, the body is very interdependant. And people's talents and gifts are compared to what in ephesians? The body, and all its parts.
So, for next year's resolution, work on one thing, but understand, we need to do ALL things. So plan eventually to get to everything. Our bible reading is directly connected with us talking to people, caring for them. Our happiness is connected with prayer, and serving our church. Our worship will be all the more greater doing more. Worship songs and stories of grace leads us back to reading. The list can go on and on.
On a regular farm, if you get a bad crop, or the cows get sick, its natures way report of your balance of your farm. Do you find yourself in bad spots, perhaps you are lacking in a unrelated area, (its not really unrelated, as we have seen), work on those areas that need work, no matter how extraneous. What the grace of god fall.
Yes, your steak. Twenty dollars later, and you are chewing a nice T-bone or New York strip, letting the commericialized A1 Sauce excite your taste buds.
Cow is so tasty!
But again, where did this cow come from?
Well, in today's world: the cow factory.
Those old rustic images of steer milling around on a large green field fenced by oak planks and a old man with a less-than-milk temperment, those images are nothing close to what actually happens. It turns out that cows are in jail. They have a small cell to themselves in a large complex. It is not fully enclosed, they do see the light of day and get some fresh air. If their window is large enough, they get the branding "0rganic".
Is there any grass in the Cow Gulag? Nope. What do they eat then? Corn.
Corn. Corn. Corn. Corn. Corn explodes from the ground in comparison to the expected grass and shrubs seen in cartoons.
Unfortunately, corn makes the Cow very very sick. Turns out corn is not the most nutritious consumable for Cows. So, when the Cows get sick, what do we do? Change the food? Nopes, fix the sickness: Antibiotics.
That is just to keep the cows healthy. That does not include the hormones and other growth-additives we feed cows so that they grow bigger and fatter faster.
The saying: "You are what you eat" haunts the populace these days, with fattier meats, and the antibiotics plugged into the cows, thus the steak, thus into us, causing many many problems. This is just with the food. This does not account for all the waste from these cow towers, nor the difficulty and pollution generated from maintaining these All-corn farming lots.
But hey, Cow is cow, right?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Perhaps we have over simplified too many things. Is steak different from Grass-fed cows and Corn fed and iron-housed Cows? Doctors and farmers say yes. Can we, the general populace tell the difference? Perhaps not.
Details, minor details. But when do the minor details matter?
The american agriculture is the perfect example of the american mindset. Simplify the product, Cows eat grass, but we could feed them corn for cheaper, and the difference isn't that noticable. This allows one farmer to only grow corn, and the other farmer to grow cows, allowing people to specialize. Sounds familiar doesn't it? It is the throws of the industrial revolution.
It has been done with the american education also. What's wrong with the stupid children of the world? It's the teachers! It's the obesity! It's television. The public is accustomed to some unilateral target of blame.
Some families have raised their kids under the rule: "having money makes you happy". Many years later, the child gets the dream and nets himself a large income, but yet hangs in manic depression.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There is a great inter-dependancy of ALL things. It is in nature, and it is in us also. In nature, grass feeds the cow, chickens can go where the cows have plowed for them, eating bugs out of the poop and turning it into nitrogen poop. Nitrogen then grows the grass in turn. And so the 3 part circle goes. To increase one particular animal, say cow, requires a matching chicken, and a larger sized field. If not compensated, sickness sets in, or one species is eliminated.
"Just read the bible more" Yes, that is often the answer to many problems, but it is that PLUS so much more. Reading the bible only gets you so far. Reading the bible should lead to actions that prove your faith. Those actions of love, kindness, and benevolence fall on your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. They are helped and cared for, and thus in turn care for you, and provide. From those interactions and problems that are shared, we are brought to the bible more, to see the ever expansive grace of our father. He can help divorcees! He serves the depressed! The gospel helps the discontent. How? We know from our friends; they have names; life stories! Their great difficulty only magnifies the lord even more.
There is so much inter-connectivity in the bible, in nature's creatures and life cycles. Even within our body, inter dependancy reigns supreme. To say the body is all lungs, or only a stomach with a support system, the body is very interdependant. And people's talents and gifts are compared to what in ephesians? The body, and all its parts.
So, for next year's resolution, work on one thing, but understand, we need to do ALL things. So plan eventually to get to everything. Our bible reading is directly connected with us talking to people, caring for them. Our happiness is connected with prayer, and serving our church. Our worship will be all the more greater doing more. Worship songs and stories of grace leads us back to reading. The list can go on and on.
On a regular farm, if you get a bad crop, or the cows get sick, its natures way report of your balance of your farm. Do you find yourself in bad spots, perhaps you are lacking in a unrelated area, (its not really unrelated, as we have seen), work on those areas that need work, no matter how extraneous. What the grace of god fall.
posted by Tim Lee at 10:23 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home