Grandma says: For something to live, something has to die
Growing up it seemed as if Grandma Fannie had an inexhaustible list of cross stitch wall plaques or catchy little teachings about how to live in harmony with each other and mother earth. Since she and Grandpa Ed lived on the farm for much of the time that I was growing up many of her teachings were, it seemed, drawn from and applied to life on the farm. As a child and later a young man I had not yet “discovered” that these teachings needed to be packed and transported to every setting to which my life journey would take me.
The truth of the teaching “For something to live, something has to die.” was very evident on the farm. Seeds were planted, crops which fed humans and other animals were harvested, the plants died, returned to the earth and helped to provide food for the next crop of plants. Chicken, hogs, cows and other farm animals were hatched or born often to eventually end up on the dining table for us humans. Even in the woods or forest some trees had to die so that others would grow to maturity. Of course, the wood from the trees one killed would provide the wood for sheltering homes, barns, and other buildings needed for humans as well as the other animals. All animals and insects had to feed off of something. Even humans had to die, fertilize the earth and make room for a new crop of hands which would tend the fields, care for the animals as well as well as other humans.
As I grew older I left home to join the United States Naval Forces. Eventually I would leave the Navy and find myself in such diverse locations as New Jersey; Washington, DC; Alaska; and, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I discovered first hand that the relationship between death and new life was not as obvious as it was on the farm. Naturally I understood that some believed that the violence of war was necessary to allow for others to live. I also knew that all items at the green grocer, bakery, or butcher were made with ingredients from the farms.
Lorraine Hansberry in A Raisin in the Sun, Richard Wright, Plato, Wittgenstein, Vera Brittain, Alice Miller, Dostoevsky, Emily Dickinson, Walter Kaufman, Immanuel Kant, Nikki Giovanni, Maya Angelou, and hundreds of other authors, painters, musicians, and dancers suggested to me that ideas, perceptions, and beliefs often had to die for new ones to emerge. I knew that Grandma Fannie savored the thinking of many of those who lived in the pages of her rather extensive library. As a child and even as a young man I had no idea that her wise teachings was borrowed from and built upon those who lived through her books. I knew, of course, that some of the books were written by those who lived many years ago and I knew that some of them were her contemporaries. I also knew that one of her most treasured books, the Bible, was penned many years before even she was born. I did not come close to understanding such metaphors as the death and resurrection of Jesus. I did not know that this woman, my Grandma Fannie, understood what so few of us seem to accept and understand today. If we are going to have new solutions to how to live together, we must be willing to allow our current ways of thinking and acting to die while inviting new ways of thinking and acting.
In the United States, we seem to hang on to what we think the framers of the Constitution and the amendments to same intended. Despite their success in thinking outside the box of who they were, how they had lived and how they would continue to live for many years, they could not envision the world as it is today. Today we have opportunities in all areas of life that they did not have. We have opportunities to cause more widespread destruction and opportunities to find new ways to understanding what it means to be our brothers (and sisters) keepers. We can explore the universe in ways they could not have imagined. We can build walls and we can tear them down.
I think Grandma Fannie was attempting to teach me, my siblings and all who would listen that everything we think we know may have to die in order for new possibilities to emerge. The constitution as well as the teachings of Jesus, the Buddha, and others can and should stand but our limited, myopic understanding of what they can mean has no limits.
The Preamble of the Constitution of these United States says:
“We the people of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
Our understanding of justice, how we insure domestic Tranquility, etc., must and does change over time. Who the constitution protects is constantly evolving. No doubt some articles of the Constitution and its amendments will not and should not change. The world is in many respects vastly different than it was when this document and each amendment was written and adopted but our understanding of what it means is a job not only for the Supreme Court but for each of its citizens. New possibilities exist in health care, the ability of marketing everything from medication to guns, and the ability to connect and spy on each other. One could easily be either excited or overwhelmed by how to marry the Constitution with all these new possibilities. I have no idea of what Grandma Fannie would say about many of these possibilities. She might be both disgusted and shocked by the availability and variety of pornographic material. She might be thrilled with the ability to have the ability to instantly share a letter via email or to visit a museum via the internet.
One thing I firmly believe is that Grandma Fannie would suggest that in order for something to live something must die. She would insist that this applies to all aspects of this life journey. She would, no doubt begin with suggesting that we first open our hearts and minds to the possibility that death is never the end. It is a new beginning.
Written August 28, 2017
Growing up it seemed as if Grandma Fannie had an inexhaustible list of cross stitch wall plaques or catchy little teachings about how to live in harmony with each other and mother earth. Since she and Grandpa Ed lived on the farm for much of the time that I was growing up many of her teachings were, it seemed, drawn from and applied to life on the farm. As a child and later a young man I had not yet “discovered” that these teachings needed to be packed and transported to every setting to which my life journey would take me.
The truth of the teaching “For something to live, something has to die.” was very evident on the farm. Seeds were planted, crops which fed humans and other animals were harvested, the plants died, returned to the earth and helped to provide food for the next crop of plants. Chicken, hogs, cows and other farm animals were hatched or born often to eventually end up on the dining table for us humans. Even in the woods or forest some trees had to die so that others would grow to maturity. Of course, the wood from the trees one killed would provide the wood for sheltering homes, barns, and other buildings needed for humans as well as the other animals. All animals and insects had to feed off of something. Even humans had to die, fertilize the earth and make room for a new crop of hands which would tend the fields, care for the animals as well as well as other humans.
As I grew older I left home to join the United States Naval Forces. Eventually I would leave the Navy and find myself in such diverse locations as New Jersey; Washington, DC; Alaska; and, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I discovered first hand that the relationship between death and new life was not as obvious as it was on the farm. Naturally I understood that some believed that the violence of war was necessary to allow for others to live. I also knew that all items at the green grocer, bakery, or butcher were made with ingredients from the farms.
Lorraine Hansberry in A Raisin in the Sun, Richard Wright, Plato, Wittgenstein, Vera Brittain, Alice Miller, Dostoevsky, Emily Dickinson, Walter Kaufman, Immanuel Kant, Nikki Giovanni, Maya Angelou, and hundreds of other authors, painters, musicians, and dancers suggested to me that ideas, perceptions, and beliefs often had to die for new ones to emerge. I knew that Grandma Fannie savored the thinking of many of those who lived in the pages of her rather extensive library. As a child and even as a young man I had no idea that her wise teachings was borrowed from and built upon those who lived through her books. I knew, of course, that some of the books were written by those who lived many years ago and I knew that some of them were her contemporaries. I also knew that one of her most treasured books, the Bible, was penned many years before even she was born. I did not come close to understanding such metaphors as the death and resurrection of Jesus. I did not know that this woman, my Grandma Fannie, understood what so few of us seem to accept and understand today. If we are going to have new solutions to how to live together, we must be willing to allow our current ways of thinking and acting to die while inviting new ways of thinking and acting.
In the United States, we seem to hang on to what we think the framers of the Constitution and the amendments to same intended. Despite their success in thinking outside the box of who they were, how they had lived and how they would continue to live for many years, they could not envision the world as it is today. Today we have opportunities in all areas of life that they did not have. We have opportunities to cause more widespread destruction and opportunities to find new ways to understanding what it means to be our brothers (and sisters) keepers. We can explore the universe in ways they could not have imagined. We can build walls and we can tear them down.
I think Grandma Fannie was attempting to teach me, my siblings and all who would listen that everything we think we know may have to die in order for new possibilities to emerge. The constitution as well as the teachings of Jesus, the Buddha, and others can and should stand but our limited, myopic understanding of what they can mean has no limits.
The Preamble of the Constitution of these United States says:
“We the people of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
Our understanding of justice, how we insure domestic Tranquility, etc., must and does change over time. Who the constitution protects is constantly evolving. No doubt some articles of the Constitution and its amendments will not and should not change. The world is in many respects vastly different than it was when this document and each amendment was written and adopted but our understanding of what it means is a job not only for the Supreme Court but for each of its citizens. New possibilities exist in health care, the ability of marketing everything from medication to guns, and the ability to connect and spy on each other. One could easily be either excited or overwhelmed by how to marry the Constitution with all these new possibilities. I have no idea of what Grandma Fannie would say about many of these possibilities. She might be both disgusted and shocked by the availability and variety of pornographic material. She might be thrilled with the ability to have the ability to instantly share a letter via email or to visit a museum via the internet.
One thing I firmly believe is that Grandma Fannie would suggest that in order for something to live something must die. She would insist that this applies to all aspects of this life journey. She would, no doubt begin with suggesting that we first open our hearts and minds to the possibility that death is never the end. It is a new beginning.
Written August 28, 2017
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