Nothing But Weeds.....

Friends: Nothing But Weeds…

“Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? From where, then, hath it tares? He said, An enemy hath done this.” Matthew 13: 27-28.

I was over in Brantley County the other day looking around to see if hard times had fallen on them over there and if I might be lucky enough to pick up a bargain or two on some land. Not much luck, but I did notice something interesting as I walked the sidewalks of the courthouse. Weeds grew up from everywhere. Have you ever noticed that weeds need absolutely no nutriment to grow? They peek up out of sheer concrete, asphalt and any soil that any respectable flower would not ever inhabit. Weeds happen! It led me to believe that there is a bias in nature to the chaotic, the uncultivated field, not to the cultivated one. Now this is deep stuff!

Take a look in your own yard or grass…can you imagine what would happen if you left it unattended for just a few months? Why, for example, kudzu grows 18 inches a day and at that rate, you can compute: In 232 days your entire yard would be overrun, not to mention your house. Speaking of kudzu, the Southern Cannibal, in Atlanta I had a neighbor who had solid red clay for a yard. Not even rocks would grow there, but kudzu thrived. And one day I found it literally running into my yard. I measured its progress, and absolutely it moved about 18 inches in one hot day when anything respectable would have been inside in the AC. What to do, what to do? I paced and paced, no ideas. Finally, I went out and staked out a “return path” for the pernicious plant and headed it back into the neighbor’s yard. It worked…I was a genius. Relentlessly it headed up the embankment, across the neighbor’s yard straight to the next neighbor, who was a pretty good sort. I sprinted to his house to warn him of the impending danger, and shared my secret. Today, from that one vine, much of northern Buckhead is fighting kudzu.

Now this has nothin’ to do with nothin’, but it does provide somewhat of a useful metaphor for our lives. I’m looking at the clutter on my desk…is there a deal lying up here anywhere? Can’t find it if it is…no nutriment, but only weeds are growing up here on the surface of this sterile desk, useless scraps of paper, books, left-over newspapers, unanswered emails, unreturned phone messages, and overrun trash cans. Like mad dogs it attacks me viciously every day. Goes to point out that unless you regularly get ruthless with clutter, with weeds, the bias of nature will overrun your life and you’ll wake up covered with kudzu…and an enemy hath done this, and keeps on doing it…and with our consent!

Take a lesson from the Hangar Prophet: divert the kudzu back where it came from and see what happens…and bundle up all that useless crap and send it to file 13…do it now!



Bud
November 8, 2007