Wednesday October 21, 2009
GIVING UP OUR ROADS
By Jim Taylor
Somewhere along the way, we made a terrible mistake.
That realization came to me the other night, as I was walking the dog down the centre of a deserted road. You would think, to look at the blacktop rolled out so authoritatively, that the road had been here forever. But when you see that it wiggles to avoid trees that have stood in that place longer than the road has existed, when you see how it detours around rock outcrops, you realize that the road is a relative latecomer.
In fact, most of our roads were foot trails long before they were roads. That’s particularly evident in old cities – like, say, London, England – where any resemblance to a grid system is laughable.
The evolution of roads is most visible in unplanned communities like Bonavista, in Newfoundland. The first houses were built by fishermen, along the beach. Then merchants and tradespeople built houses on the marshland behind the beach. Wherever they could find lumps of higher ground, naturally. Paths evolved to connect the houses.
Today, those wandering footpaths have become streets. A map of Bonavista resembles a child’s random scribbles.
Because the roads were never planned as roads.
SELLING OUT
Neither were most of ours. People walked those trails first. Later came horses and carts, but human feet still had the right of way.
And then, somehow, we ceded our rights to the car. Now we have to get out of their way.
Instead, we build special roadways for pedestrians. We call them sidewalks – places where people can walk without fear of being run down by a four-wheeled, gas-guzzling tin can that weighs two tons.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m a child of the 150s – I love cars. But I worry that we have granted them a godlike status they don’t deserve.
The situation reminds me of the biblical story of Jacob and Esau. Esau, you may remember, was the older brother. By law and tradition, he would inherit his father’s lands.
But Jacob felt jealous. So one day when Esau came home from hunting, ravenous, Jacob tempted him with a simmering pot of savoury stew. “If you want this,” Jacob bargained, “give me your birthright.”
Esau thought it was a joke. “Sure,” he said, knowing that mere words could not alter the fact that he was his father’s firstborn.
Except that, in the end, he did lose his birthright.
SQUEEZED OUT
So did we.
We gave up our right to own the roads. We allowed gimlet-eyed drivers, right foot firmly planted on the gas pedal, obsessed with getting to their destination a few seconds sooner – a tribe to which I often belong – to usurp our rightful place.
Not only is the car a primary user of carbon-based fuel, it has become a parasite that has invaded our body politic. Life without the car has become unimaginable.
The dog and I squeeze over onto the shoulder as a car roars by. I think I know how Esau might have felt.
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Copyright © 2009 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups permitted; all other rights reserved.
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Your Turn
Two letters came in about Wotan, the horse.
This from William Ball: “Yes, Jim; Wotan is indeed a reminder of gentleness and power residing in the same being (for many Christians, at least, an example of Christ, see Phil. 2, who took the form of a servant/slave, rather than what the writer saw as his proper place ‘at the right hand side’ of God).
“Yet, for all his gentleness, there is a use and purpose for that power; for running over the fields, hills and streams, free and with his herd. Or, in the context of human usage, running fast, jumping high, or pulling strong(ly). Power of many different kinds exists; they arise from many different sources, both natural and imposed. But for what goal or purpose are they put, and how are those giving the power (horses, voters, etc.) being treated? For an undergraduate paper I mused on the ‘will to power’ as being a significant description of sin; usually as power _over_ or _against,_ rather than power _for_.”
And Suzanne Edgar sent this: “I have some friends in Bruce County, Ontario who use their Percherons regularly, to harvest hay, clear snow, pull wagon loads of people. They even loan them out to neighbouring "old-order" Mennonites to keep the horses in shape. But gentle, no question.
“The horse you saw [who kicked his rider] may have had an ill-fitting saddle on, or he may have been settling a score; hard to tell. Its always better to let a horse know you’re there behind him, and if you’ve been cruel and arrogant with that horse, give him lots of space (and go see someone about your cruel streak!)”
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About My Paraphrases
Occasionally, I get frustrated by the Bible. Not usually by the message, which is timeless, but by the language and metaphor. Contemporary translations update the language, but not the metaphor, so the text still expects us to respond to images of deserts and tents, camels and droughts, kings and concubines. Whatever we’ve learned since the Bible was written — about psychology and evolution, about quantum physics and astronomy, computers and fossil fuels – is simply left out.
At such times, I start paraphrasing. I don’t pretend that these paraphrases are true to original texts. They are, rather, my way of writing what I think the original writers might have said IF they lived today. Sometimes I stick close to the traditional versification; sometimes I take liberties.
My paraphrase of Paul’s letter to the Romans attempts to put Paul’s sometimes convoluted words — and argument — into a contemporary setting. If Paul were writing today, to the Christian church, I’m not sure he’d worry as much about the failure of the Jews to follow Christ as about the failure of Christians to follow Christ, so I have rephrased in those terms. I suspect he would also make use of quotations from the Gospels — which of course didn’t exist when he wrote his letters — rather than using quotations from the only scriptures he had available, which we call the Old Testament.
I also have paraphrases for Ecclesiastes and Job. Ecclesiastes sticks pretty much to the biblical flow of verses – though with, I hope, some sense of humour. Job cuts 42 chapters down to about three pages. I found the speeches in Job interminable; the only way I could make sense of the various characters’ verbal meanderings was to turn them into television sound-bites.
I make all these available on the honour system. You send me an e-mail and request the file you want. I’ll send it. If you like it, and want to keep it, you send me a cheque for $5 by snail mail. If you don’t like it, simply erase it from your hard disk and send nothing.
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PROMOTION STUFF…
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For other web links worth pursuing, try
- Charlene Fairchild’s United Online site,
- David Keating’s “SeemslikeGod” page
- The Canadian Centre for Progressive Christianity home page
- Alva Wood’s satiric stories about small town attitudes and bumbling bureaucrats are not particularly religious, but good fun anyway; write [email protected] to get onto her mailing list.
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