John Anderson

Progress came and took its toll,
And in the name of flood control,
They made their plans and they drained the land,
Now the glades are going dry.
And the last time I walked in the swamp,
I sat upon a Cypress stump,
I listened close and I heard the ghost,
Of Osceola cry.

So blow, blow Seminole wind,

Blow like you're never gonna blow again.
I'm calling to you like a long lost friend
But I know who you are.
And blow, blow from the Okeechobee,
All the way up to Micanopy.
Blow across the home of the Seminole,
The alligators and the gar.

John Winthrop, Biblical Social Justice

God almighty in His most holy and wise providence hath so disposed of the condition of mankind, as in all times some must be rich, some poor, some high and eminent in power and dignity, others mean and in subjection.

No man is made more honor than another or more wealthy, etc., out of any particular and singular respect to himself, but for the glory of His creator and the common good of the creature, man.

The rich and mighty should not eat up the poor, nor the poor and despised rise up against their superiors and shake off their yoke.

John Bunyan

It is said that in some countries trees will grow, but will bear no fruit because there is no winter.

Nebraska Bison

The American Church is Juvenile

In an attempt to compete with the entertainment industry, the American church has reduced itself to the lowest common denominator. There is no aspiration to rise above the fray, to grow, to think or to gain maturity. Christ has been reduced to a role model or maybe lower. Adolescences is celebrated as the wolves move in for the kill. MR

“The modern dogma is comfort at any cost.” ― Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac

William Somerville

‘When autumn smiles, all beauteous in decay,
And paints each chequered grove with various hues,
My setter ranges in the new shorn fields,
His nose in air erect; from ridge to ridge,
Panting, he bounds, his quartered ground divides
In equal intervals, nor careless leaves
One inch untried. At length the tainted gale
His nostrils wide inhale, quick joy elates
His beating heart, which, awed by discipline
Severe, he dares not own, but cautious creeps
Low-cowering, step by step; at last attains
His proper distance, there he stops at once,
And points with his instructive nose upon
The trembling prey. On wings of wind and upborne
The floating net unfolded flies; then drops,
And the poor fluttering captives rise in vain.’

Nebraska

Diversity

Absolute diversity has only one outcome; chaos. Without some binding force to hold the bits of time, matter and space together we are left with an anti-cosmos. Although many have attempted, it is impossible to live, consistently, in an anti-universe. The best expressions of this are to be found in pieces of art. You can hang a disorderly
painting on your wall but you would not be able to function if you had to live within the disorder of the painting. The order of reality always creeps back, as the chaotic painting is not hung backwards on the wall, the artist created it to be seen, to make a statement, to make a truth claim that there is no truth.

If all ideas are relative how can diversity be better than unity. MR

Wendell Berry

“The basis of my resistance is not that I’m a crank, but that I’m satisfied. I didn’t dislike the way I was doing it.” Wendell Berry as quoted in National Review, July 30, 2012.