Juxtaposition 2014.04.05

When we bought our house, it came, at no extra charge, with a stand of bamboo. I'd say it was a large one but that's not true. It only seems large when I'm trying to eliminate it.

All of the stalks got cut down last year, so this spring's project is to dig out all the roots so the stuff won't come back.  I've been working on this digging process every Saturday since January, because it's amazingly difficult to dig up bamboo, particularly for one who's days of being in shape are long gone. However, the remaining clump base is probably only about a third of the size it started with.

We tend to think that projects should move forward in a linear manner - if I put in an hour of work, I should get an hour worth of progress. The bamboo, unfortunately, does not understand this logic. Sometimes progress is straightforward. At other times, I may go for days or weeks without seeming to accomplish much. At those times it's easy to imagine that the task is simply impossible. The last few weeks have been one such period: there's been a large root mass that was somewhat loose, but I didn't seem to be able to get enough leverage on it to get it out, despite trying every weekend. Today, the tide turned. Once the foot long piece in the photo got pried out from below the soil surface, other clumps quickly followed. My faith was rewarded and my doubts vanquished. For now, anyway!

From the Revised Common Lectionary for April 5, 2014

Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.

“For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’”

And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry outto him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:1-8)

From A Common Meditation for All Souls

Despair and hope are inseparable. One can never understand what hope is really about unless one wrestles with despair. The same is true with faith. There has to be some serious doubt, otherwise faith becomes merely a dogmatic formula, an orthodoxy, a way of evading the complexity of life, rather than a way of engaging honestly with life.

(Cornel West, 1953 - )

I don't believe that an interventionist god decided to cut me some slack today. But I do believe that wisdom is all around us, if only we will be open to receive it. Perhaps I was just lucky. Perhaps after reading these, I was just that much more willing to push harder on the crowbar, or that much more careful about where I put the bar tip under the root mass. I don't know. I only know that when I was digging bamboo, these excerpts made sense.