Long Time, No Write

My last blog post here was nearly seven months ago! I was once so motivated to communicate with the written word through blog posts, and now I am not. My original Deliberate Agrarian blog yet lives and has a whopping 5.5 million views. There were two (or was it three?) subsequent blogs, and finally this one.

I have not totally given up on this blog. It may beckon me back in time. Seasons of life, you know. I had more to say back then, and I felt powerfully compelled to be saying it.

This morning I went looking for the old blog post I recall making after traveling to Maine and the Common Ground fair in Unity. I wanted to know what year Marlene and I did that. It was the last time I visited with my birth father. Finding that blog post took some doing, but it turned up HERE at my Upland blog.

While visiting Upland I happened upon the blog post that I wrote back in 2016, and have reposted below. I read it, and I liked it, and I thought to myself that the subscribers here that have not seen it might like it too.

As most of you know, I am making YouTube videos instead of writing blog posts. The primary reason for this is that YouTube gives me money. It’s not a lot, but it has become enough to make a difference. It’s enough to get some bills paid.

Besides that, there is the “game” aspect of monetized YouTube videos. For an entrepreneur, making money is something of a game. You create a product, put it “out there ” and see if it makes you money. Sometimes you win a little. Sometimes you win a lot. Sometimes you actually lose. Most of the time, I win a little. But it adds up.

My most recent video is not part of the game; it is not monetized (but YouTube still places their ads there). It is a 1959 home video. I put it on YouTube for my family. Anyone else who starts to watch it will probably not finish. It’s just downright boring if it isn’t your own family. But at 7:51 into the movie the Auld Lang Syne piano music starts, and the last 2 minutes or so get to the point.

Soon after posting that video, my youngest son sent me this message: “Really a great video Dad! The ending was very moving for me.”

That message from my son made my heart glad.

We are on the cusp of a new year. What will 2023 bring? I think it will bring more of the same. That’s my prediction. God only knows the specifics.

With that in mind, I wish you and your family all the best in 2023.

Now, on to that old Upland blog post…

If A Slug Crosses The Road…

As I was walking along my way this morning I spied a lone slug crossing the road in front of me. I walked on by before turning back and taking the picture you see above. After all, it’s not every day one sees a slug crossing the road.

I don’t know why this slug (among so many slugs that surely inhabit the land beside the road) decided it alone must leave it’s natural element and cross the broad expanse of rough macadam. It is a mystery, among so many mysteries, to be found in the natural world (a.k.a., God’s garden).

Outward appearance notwithstanding, this was clearly not your typical slug. Perhaps it was a high achiever, looking for new opportunities. Or, maybe it was an adventuring slug, choosing to cross the road simply because it was there, and because few other slugs dared to cross. It could be that this was a rebel slug, breaking with its slug-world cultural expectations—a rebel without a clue. Then again, it may be that the slug was on its own half-baked Keourackian quest, looking for life’s answers On The Road. And there is always the possibility that this slug’s cognitive abilities were affected by an environmental toxin. Which is to say, it had lost it’s mind. We will never know for sure.

The question that a deep-thinking philosopher might ask upon seeing this slug on it’s journey, would be a variation of the tree-in-the-woods question.

You know… “If a tree falls in the woods, and there is no one there to hear it, does it really make a sound?”

Applied to this slug crossing a lonely country road in Upland, the question would be:

“If a slug crosses the Way, and a pilgrim traveller does not happen along to see it (and take its picture), does the slug actually exist?”

Well, it’s a silly question, isn’t it? 

Of course the slug still exists, and of course a tree makes a sound if it crashes in the woods with no one there to hear it.

One has to be a worldly-wise philosopher to be confused by such questions. Normal people know better.

Personally, I’m confident of these things because Jesus Christ answered both questions in Matthew 10:29, where he told his disciples the following:

“Not a single sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it.”
(New Living Translation)

Paraphrased…

“Not a single slug can cross the road without God knowing about it.”

And again…

“Not a single tree can fall in the woods without God hearing it.”

The concept of God’s sovereign omnipresence and omniscience  is boggling to the human mind. We have a tendency to limit God’s abilities because of our own personal inabilities. In other words, if we can’t conceive of something being possible, then it must be impossible.

But in Matthew 19, Jesus tells his disciples that “…with God, all things are possible.” 

In that instance, Jesus was talking about salvation. He had made it clear that no human can possibly, by their good works or wealth, be worthy enough to enter into the Kingdom of God. When they grasped this reality, the disciples wondered how anyone could possibly be saved from the penalty of their sins and enter the Kingdom.

The answer to their question was speaking to them, but they would not come to understand that until later, when God’s plan of redemption had been fulfilled.

That little word, “all,” as in “With God all things are possible,” is actually a very big word.

“All” is beyond our human comprehension in so many ways—sort of like Einstein’s Theory of Relativity is beyond the comprehension of a slug.

So, in review, with thanks to that little slug, we’ve managed to confidently answer a “deep” philosophical conundrum here. It’s a good day when you can get something like that accomplished.

And now, with all this talk of slugs and tree-sound in mind, I have a much deeper question….

If a slug crosses the road, does it make a sound?

Personally, I’m inclined to think it does, even though I can’t hear it.

And I have no doubt that if a slug does make  a noise, God can hear it.

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