#146 Musings Beyond the Bunker (Friday September 17)
Good morning!
I’d like to start with a joke in the form of a parable:
A storm descends on a small town, and the downpour soon turns into a flood. As the waters rise, the local preacher kneels in prayer on the church porch, surrounded by water. By and by, one of the townsfolk comes up the street in a canoe.
"Better get in, Preacher. The waters are rising fast."
"No," says the preacher. "I have faith in the Lord. He will save me."
Still the waters rise. Now the preacher is up on the balcony, wringing his hands in supplication, when another guy zips up in a motorboat.
"Come on, Preacher. We need to get you out of here. The levee's gonna break any minute." Once again, the preacher is unmoved. "I shall remain. The Lord will see me through."
After a while the levee breaks, and the flood rushes over the church until only the steeple remains above water. The preacher is up there, clinging to the cross, when a helicopter descends out of the clouds, and a state trooper calls down to him through a megaphone.
"Grab the ladder, Preacher. This is your last chance."
Once again, the preacher insists the Lord will deliver him. And, predictably, he drowns. A pious man, the preacher goes to heaven. After a while he gets an interview with God, and he asks the Almighty, "Lord, I had unwavering faith in you. Why didn't you deliver me from that flood?"
“I sent you two boats and a helicopter but you did nothing.”
The point of the story to me is that one can pray for help or have faith one will be saved but, in the end, one must take matters in one’s own hands and avail oneself of the solutions on the ground, as and when they present themselves. And when individuals can’t or won’t, endangering the rest of society, perhaps society must take action.
It seems the aversion to masks and vaccinations takes two broad forms: First, society “can’t tell me what to do.” And second, “this is an overblown risk; the Lord will protect me.” Sitting around and waiting for the natural order of things is hardly the way to handle a crisis. We have the means available to stem the crisis (just as we have the tools—yet not the will—to address the climate crisis). As we have learned during the Delta variant surge, the risk is real, the Lord isn’t providing much help and people are reticent to act. Sometimes we need to be told what to do—for our own good.
IT’S A PARTNERSHIP
The joke illustrates the interconnection of faith and action. The world is not static. Humankind has been advancing in its knowledge of science and ability to respond to crises. The fellow in the joke couldn’t see that help repeatedly had arrived. One must see the opportunities when they are presented and act upon them. It is great to believe that “things will work out” or “G-d has a purpose.” But it is not okay to stay still and not contribute to the solution. While a stretch, it reminds me of a wonderful explanation for the blessings of wine and bread in Judaism (carried forth, in a different form, through the Eucharist).
The beauty of both bread and wine is that they are produced through partnership. The creator provided grain but not bread. Similarly, grapes are part of nature but wine is not. Each of these two “finished products” requires the partnership of G-d and man (or nature and man—and I mean no disrespect by the male term). We get the raw material, but it is through man’s ingenuity and work that the grain and grapes turn into something even better than that provided by nature.
I like this thinking. We should be grateful for what the Earth provides but we should revel in the efforts of man in improving and building upon these things. Plus, what would life be without bread or wine?
GMOs
There is another area where man did not sit still and has taken something provided to us by the creator or nature or sheer luck (take your pick) and made it better. Mankind has made great strides to modify foods to increase production and create better and healthier fruits, vegetables and grains. Because of these modifications, we are able to feed more people more and healthier foods a greater percentage of the time. Through continued experimentation with hybrids and modifications, we can produce foods that can withstand weather, travel, insects, and diseases and result in longer shelf-life. Plus, where would we be without genetically modified flowers and seedless watermelon?
The great Luther Burbank (yes, for whom the city near Los Angeles is named) was a leader in the area of agricultural science, “creating” various types of flowers, grains and fruits. He was largely responsible for development of a modified potato that helped ease the scourge of the Irish potato famine. Without these modifications, many more would have died.
There is a wacky notion that genetically modified organisms (“GMOs”) are inherently evil. But GMOs are with us and aren’t going away. Most of the fruits and vegetables we consume today are genetically modified to make tougher foods that can withstand time and travel, increase production per acre and improve the foods’ ability to deliver more nutrients.
We know GMOs are not unhealthy: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/05/plants-for-the-planet/483132/.
There is a great article from The New York Times magazine a few weeks ago about the safety and importance of GMOs: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/20/magazine/gmos.html
The fear of GMOs feels a bit like the fear of masks, of vaccines, and of scientific advances generally. There are those who fear what they don’t understand. They fear what they perceive as “unnatural.” But let’s remember that “natural” doesn’t necessarily mean “good.” Cholera, polio, Gypsy Moths, Sudden Oak Death and other diseases that can destroy entire habitats, crops or forests also are “natural.” GMOs are here to stay (there aren’t many apples or bananas purchased at the market that aren’t modified in some way). They help feed and sustain the world.
And yet…merely because we can modify fruits and vegetables to sustain long journeys to provide them when desired is not a reason for doing so. As I’ve suggested before, it’s okay not to have peaches and plums in February. Not only is the anticipation of Spring and their “normal” arrival enhanced, but the fruits are sweeter and the planet is happier not to suffer the pollution caused by their transport across oceans.
Genetically modified foods are okay. Vaccines (which, notwithstanding the protestations of non-scientists to the contrary) that do not modify genes are okay. The earth we have been given is great. We have the ability to make it better—through science. We also have the ability to make it worse—through pollution and through ignorance.
Have a great day,
Glenn
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