There’s something wrong today. I don’t know that I can put my finger on the pulse of it, but it’s there. Maybe you feel it, too.
Having recently turned 47, I’m comfortably ensconced in middle age. Yet I recall how different things were during my not-so-distant childhood. For instance, we had a milk man. Everyone did. We had a milk box on our front portch. Everyone did. It was made of aluminum and lined with styrofoam. Mom would place our “empties” in the milk box along with a note for the milk man if there was anything else she needed, like a tub of cottage cheese. If we ran low between visits from the milk man we went to the dairy. A dairy where they sold things made from milk. Our bread came from the bakery, our eggs from a farm in the country, our meat from the butcher shop where there was a real butcher.
The butcher was a skilled tradesman. “Butcher” comes from an Anglo-Norman word going back to the 14th century. The butcher was a professional who slaughtered animals and dressed the meat for sale. Skilled butchers of this ancient trade can be found all over the world. Butchery requires extensive training, and is often a family trade, passed on from one generation to the next.
Maybe that is what’s wrong. We value convenience over quality. We value style over substance. We value comfort over diligence. We value power over integrity. We value choice over responsibility.
Maybe you feel it, too.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
I remember the milk man, Zarda Dairy (I laughed out loud at “a dairy is where they sold things made from milk.”), and Bichelmeyer’s Meat Market. The skilled tradesman and his shop go back to the early Middle Ages but they’re a vanishing set.
I think you are scratching the surface, Jules, and I don’t mean that as a criticism but as a spur to go deeper. Since the last election, as a conservative Christian I feel like the ground beneath me has erupted with a view of life that I thought was a small subset of our culture, but is actually very mainstream. The bellows of those who need ‘relief’ are valued far and away more highly than the constant, steady voices of those who have taken responsibility for the future and worked hard to preserve it. The kids were let loose in the candy store and, even though we heard their voices saying “we’ll be responsible, ethical, cautious, and open,” they immediately turned tail and indignantly, defiantly grabbed every bit of candy that they had been “denied” for the last two decades. The pursuit of change has become an end unto itself, revealing a mindset that despises tradition or original intent. This country has completely shifted under our feet, and while my hope is in God alone, I fear that the shift has created tsunami-style ripples that will be our ruin. Those comparisons you made in your “Maybe…” paragraph show the character faults that underlie it all.
Rabbit, you are completely spot on.
“We value convenience over quality. We value style over substance. We value comfort over diligence. We value freedom over integrity. We value choice over responsibility.”
“The pursuit of change has become an end unto itself, revealing a mindset that despises tradition or original intent.”
I’m praying for our future. Our children’s future. And I’m doing my best to teach them to live in the world, not of it. I’m standing my ground and I won’t be swept away by the mainstream. It’s very encouraging to find others with a similar determination.
I feel it too. It makes me wonder if this is really the better life our ancestors worked so hard to give us.
You’re zeroing in on something so critical, so important. But I don’t think we value freedom over integrity. I think we value power over integrity. And that power is taking away our freedom – so rapidly I can’t believe it’s really happening. I am actually apologizing to my grown sons for what this country is becoming. How I grieve.
Grace…you’re absolutely right and I have changed the post to reflect your suggestion.