Why Filial?

My dear wife was quite adamant that my new blog title was not clear enough in description for the average person to understand. Alas, I have learned over these years that in most cases she is ...well, right. Still, I am comfortable enough that I will be able to explain why I have chosen this particularly pithy title as the conduit of yet another man's journey to simple living and humble musings about what there is to learn as we try to escape the mundane existence of slave-wage living in modern Babylon. It is my hope that I will post an acceptable explanation soon. For now, it will be simple enough to say that the idea of "fine" is self explanatory to anyone with access to a dictionary. I have even included Webster's Original at the top of this blog.

You see, we are not yet free from the slough of this modern muck. I speak in the temporal sense of course. We are not off-grid, earth-sheltered, or even owners of land. We live on a small piece of property that is rented from a local reformed minister, ( my minister ), in a part of Florida that is semi- rural and therefore semi-restricted as to usage. Even so, we are busy carving out our sustinence lifestyle while praying for the day that we might get a little "further out". Hardly the picture of Agrarian expertise, we still feel the call to do what we can ,where we can. This, I believe, is the missing ingredient of so many in the trap of modernism. They are waiting for that lottery ticket to come in before making the needed adjustments to their daily living... " if I only had _______," they say, "then I could start to live more independent of the system!" Alas, they grow more dull to the call day by day. It is kind of like the character Christian in Bunyan's classic, The Pilgrims Progress, as he lies down to take a rest in that enchanted place, unaware that the sleep he enters is his trap. Our fine property is what we have been given in our station of life, so this is what we will use.

As to the Filial nature of our existence, it can be illustrated by the events of this very morning. Our property backs against an old pasture that is owned by a wealthy northener. This Northener is keen to sell and has gone to great lengths to have his parcel rezoned for a commercial sale. Still, times being what they are, he has taken to allowing various local folk to keep cattle on this acreage that he might benefit from the Agricultural exemptions. Well too!, say's I, not being a particularly tax friendly individual myself. The problem is, that the cattle baron is seldom around to tend his stock and more importantly, to mend his fences. So, for weeks on end I have had the daily experience, ( nightly too), of herding his 15 or so younger cattle out of my gardens and back across my repeatedly mended fences into his property while trying to keep them from turning toward the nearby highway on the front of his unfenced property. This highway is a newly 4 laned monstrosity that is heavily travelled by the unattentive soccer-mom's and other Babylonian types, who are busy with their lives. Numerous attempts to reach the owner have yeilded no results, so I do what must be done to prevent harm to either party and try to keep ahead of the little devils while dreaming of larders full of fresh young steer meat!

Until, this morning that is.

As we were preparing ourselves for the Public Assembly next door at the House Church that we attend, we heard the sound of sirens and the loud speakers of our local Deputies in the distance toward that afore-mentioned highway. By the time that I got clothed and outside I was greeted by the stampede across my yard. and right through my fence and gates, and the bewildered look of several deputies whooping and waiving "Su-eee!" across the loud speaker system. I did not have the time to stop and explain that the universal hog call of these parts would never attract a band of young cattle, especially when seperated from their herd and lead cows. Cattle you see, like all herding creatures will follow the lead animal almost always unless, as in this case there is no lead animal. You must first try to "bunch" them and either help establish a leader or become one yourself. Unfortunately, these animals were now in quite a frantic, and they were stampeding in erratic directions, what with the constant sirens and squelch horns being blared from all directions and several of the lawmen trying to gain order by randomly speeding directly into the center of the herd with their vehicles revving and lights flashing! All this , right through my little property and with only 30 minutes before our Congregation was scheduled to start arriving! As I was looking at the ruined fencing and the great mud ruts that the derby deputies were churning up in our grass parking area, I noticed that my family dog was now escaped from the fence and nowhere in sight. That is when I called the deputies over and instructed them to stop and let me get the critters back where they belong. All lights went off, all sirens were ceased and I calmy called my 13 year old son to the road and told him to get them back in their property so we could find our dog. 3 minutes later with no more than a small pole and an 8 ft rope-cord attached, he had used his makeshift "cracker" whip to herd the bunch some 15o yards straight through a 3 ft wide break in the fence and back to their 40 acre parcel! Amazing young man, if I do say so myself!

It was then that we became worried because our dog is a well known cow dog and surely would have been near too herd these animals. I asked the deputy if he had seen what happened to the dog that ran out when my fences were broken and he informed me that another herd was up at the highway and he might be there. My heart sank as I called the heel command and heard no reply. I looked at my boy and told him to get the shovel and start me a goodly sized hole under a shade tree as I got in my truck and headed for the highway. 6 years this dog had been a part of our family. He had foiled 2 burglars after the hurricanes a few years back by pinning them to the house while I retrieved some persuasion. Then, there were the coyotes that had come to raid my chickens and met a mongrel that fought like it was an holy calling to save my stock! 8 of my 9 children had rode his back, hitched him to their homemade wagon and dressed him in villianous costumes for impromptu battles. Never did he fail to heed a command with the utmost submission and sorrowful gentleness and yet he was all Alpha in his realm. Nightly he would be found lying in the spot between the driveway, the livestock shelters and our doorway. Rain was no deterrent. He shunned the dog house we provided, but would be always found lying down with his head erect and scanning the 3 domains of his realm. As I pulled onto the highway I was met in the median by a deputy near the valiant beast. He began to explain that he was only trying to get the cows back across the road, ( as was the dog, no doubt), when the rushing of his car had caused them to turn again on the dog who quickly dodged out of the way and into the traffic. He geussed the fellow was doing about 60mph, so it went quick... 60 mph, on a 50mph highway in broad daylight, with 7 cows and 3 cops with lights flashing spinning every which way across all 4 lanes!

No sense in going in that direction though, the matter at hand was the dog. I pulled up just ahead of the faithful beast and and got out and raised the topper while dropping the tailgate. The deputy, looking a mixture of perplexion and disgust, asked what on earth I was doing?! I explained that I was loading up the animal to get him out of the median when he quickly interupted me and said, that there was no need for that because he was gonna call the garbage folks and they would come by, usually the same day, and throw him in the garbage hopper. I looked at the deputy in a manner that must have given him some insight into the workings of my mind, and he dropped his head slightly and softly said. "Oh, you gonna bury him up then, I see..."

Yes Sir, I responded, he is my dog, and therefore my resposibility, I am going to bury him.

Slowly, I drove into the yard, now filled with church goers who had pulled in from the highway as I was loading up my animal. There too, were my children, standing back at our property and waiting too know. As I came in, I told them all to stay back and called off the boy at the hole digging and told them all to attend unto their Lord's Day and I would follow soon.

Now less you misunderstand, we do not worship nature, nor animals. We eat most any that we can palatably prepare. Family dogs being excluded, of course. And not a tear was shed during this ordeal. Not even by the little ones. It is not that we are callous, far from it. In fact, I am quite sure that many tears will flow, even from my own eyes after the numbness wears off. The point that I am making is that misplaced critter love had nothing to do with my actions, nor with my tears.Rather, it was a result of the simple command that my Heavenly Father has given me to take dominion over all living creatures. And with that dominion, He has further commanded that I consider the beast of my field, and study to know the state of my flocks. It is filial duty, to care for this animal that so faithfully obeyed the right order of nature while under my care. It is this same duty that teaches my children that an animal missing food and water at chore time results in the same for the chore-person. Not because those animals have even a small percentage of our worth, but rather, because we are given a command from our Father that we are to care for our flocks and that failure to do so properly is a grief to His heart, and the evidence of an uncaring and unmerciful wretch.

This is not a complete explanation of what I wanted to convey in my new blog title, but it is the explanation that Providence has provided. We seek to be faithful in whatever little thing that God entrusts to us in our place and station. Oh that my neighbor had felt the same....