Saturday, On The Farm

A Big Thank You

Some things still work in this old world…

Freeman launches into “St. Anne’s Reel” and a grandpa jumps out of his chair to dance with his four year old granddaughter.  Mary makes a batch of fresh ground wheat bread and I — still dieting — allow myself a slice or two, toasted, with butter. The crunch of the grain and the shades of molasses linger on the bliss of the morning.  You close your eyes to keep it there a second or two longer.  A woman walks the farm with a sunflower she picked.  It’s the size of a big dinner plate and it’s kind of goofy/happy nodding along to the day as she walks.  The sunflower is laughing at me.  At the entrance to the colonial village, we have a real soap-maker.  She sells her wares in hues of oatmeal, charcoal and bee’s wax, all beautifully marbled.  I think, “the beauty of one thing done well.”  Most of the world is getting younger than I am.  A sturdy little lad runs across the green with his new pine toy musket and Civil War kepi.  I can tell he enjoys being tough, dangerous, a man in the making.  A young father  with a particularly kind face helps his two little daughters make flower crowns.  I talk with a friend on the brick steps in front of the tavern.  She and her husband have made it here almost every Saturday for 18 months.  We see the world the same way. We talk about the place and I lose it a little.

You know me — cranky, overbearing, argumentative — but that comes from somewhere.  It’s not just for the sake of complaining.  If you’re quiet when someone threatens what you love, did you really love it in the first place?  Everything that is good in this world — family, country, liberty, and the redemptive cornerstone of Christ upon which it is all built — is being threatened by a shrill minority of misfit bullies.  I believe that if enough of us start protecting what we love, they will melt away like the wicked witch.  (Just start throwing water, folks.)

Still, sometimes I worry that my need to “speak” will result in a few too many people driving right on by.  My “Commie” Ad earned commentary on some national radio news service this week, and I know this attention can be burdensome to the people I love, but you all encouraged me mightily yesterday.  Sales were up over the previous year by 21%.

Even if they were down, I would still praise the Lord for trials, but I’ll take a day like yesterday too.

Love you all.  (I mean it.)

Categorised in: News

This post was written by Jim Riley