The Opening of My Second Week
Marshall Massey
in Appointed Meetings, The Big Walk
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…As it turned out, the lady had no hesitations about letting me have a place to tent, right in her front yard. Not only that, she began bringing out refreshments — first well water, which was delicious (she and I and the little girl sat on a swinging chair together, drinking it down and chatting), and then fresh-picked lettuce and radishes, and finally fresh-picked strawberries and ice cream.
By the time we’d reached the strawberries, the family had dragged over a picnic table from the back of the compound, and we were all seated around it talking together.
I Return to the Road
Marshall Massey
in Appointed Meetings, The Big Walk
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“I will be honest with you,” the Fairfield pastor said. “We discussed this and decided not to invite you to speak to us. We’re not sure we agree with your plight. We thought your journey was too expensive for the purpose.” He added, “Besides, this will be the graduation day at our local high school; we will all be at parties for our kids.”
Naming the Creatures
Marshall Massey
in Community, Relating to Creation, The Big Walk
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This might perhaps be a good place to bring the Judæo-Christian idea of the “covenanting community” into our discussion. My friend the steak-eater, and my friend who doesn’t brake for animals, and I myself, might all be people who consciously identify ourselves with some such community. But the community I identify with includes the cattle and the wild animals on the road in a way that other people’s communities do not. Mine makes the cattle and the wild animals a little bit more like citizens —
Traveling in the *Gospel* Ministry
Marshall Massey
in Discernment, The Big Walk, Travel in the Ministry
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Frankly, I see travel in the ministry as an activity that goes all the way to the heart of the dynamic that is Quakerism — the metaphysic, if you will, of our life as Friends. And I’d like to bring that metaphysic out into the light of day, so that we can see it more clearly.
My Strength and My Salvation –
We cling to our technologies, even though they are destroying the planet and may eventually destroy us, because deep down we know how naked and vulnerable we are. We cling to our technologies for the same reason I’m once more feeling a bit fearful of going out on the road.
There’s stuff in the Old Testament about this.
Update: The Conclusion of the First Week
Such beautiful country! And such kindly people in it. The sun shone, the hills rolled, the leaves of the trees sang in the wind. When the land thrives as it did that spring day, one can easily fail to think of the missing species (bison, beaver, waterfowl, etc.) that would have been there had it been wild, and believe that one is looking at Creation in its full glory. Certainly God’s glory shone through it. Cattle grazing at the fences next to the highway traded looks with one another as I appeared, and then retreated to the far corners of their pastures.
Walking Through the Biotic Community
Marshall Massey
in Relating to Creation, The Big Walk
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5 Comments
The bodies were just left there. There was never a skid mark, no sign whatsoever that the killer had slowed. The deer had been heaved off the side of the road to rot, as fallen boulders are heaved off the road in Colorado, without any sign of human feeling.
Update: The Middle of the First Week
On the way we looked at a new ethanol plant going in at Brooks. Brooks is another of rural America’s endless supply of fast-dying little towns: thriving a quarter century ago, but only a few houses left now, and those not in good condition. It’s yet another victim of federal economic policies that bleed the rural populace for the enrichment of agribusiness. The ethanol plant going in there is much larger than it is, consuming at least a couple hundred acres. Corn stubble here will be converted to auto fuel. My host told me there’s big money involved: “Bill Gates is one of the investors.”