When I was a young farm kid learning the mysteries of life, I became aware of ordinary and extraordinary. Ordinary farming was kind of tidy and seasonal. It was a couple of cows with either milk or cream shipped, certain fields seeded with oats and wheat or barley, some acres summer-fallowed each year, and of course all dependent on lots of rain and minimal grasshoppers. Buildings and yard maintenance was important for some and not so much for others. That was our neighborhood.
This
was not quite the way of our farm. Our operation was this plus a number
of other things (not quite as normal)! We were also a mixed farm but a little more mixed up! 😏 Included was some cropland and some
pastureland, some beef cattle, a modest herd of dairy cows, a chicken coupe and a pen with some pigs in it. Even at a young age I could tell that our mixed farm was
deliberate. My parents’ early beginnings had been on prime land. When my two younger brothers and I were still preschoolers our parents decided to sell that property
at optimum price and with those funds purchased the place which thereafter was home for us and the further nine brothers and sisters who came along in due time. This marginal stony land would accommodate mixed farming along with a
sideline custom hay and straw baling operation. Main purpose here of course was
to keep this growing family very occupied – occupied and out of trouble! It
was not good to have a high energy labor force with nothing to do.
In hindsight I now recognize most features of this mixed farm
operation quite in character of our dad, and recognizable in yours truly as well as several of my siblings! Innovation is more interesting than routine. For example, a three-ton
farm truck is generally envisioned as a grain truck. On our farm the three ton was that and considerably more! It was the transportation for hay
and straw bales to the city of Saskatoon, where dad had a contract to provide that
needed commodity for certain feedlots. True to market economy, of course
he knew that the more we could supply the better the feedlot owners liked it, the larger the cheques for services rendered. The fewer the
loads the lower the transportation cost, hence an obvious impact on profit/loss
of this operation. And yes, in keeping with Mennonite farm management in those days, the
labor was free! 😏
This
is where the extraordinary came in. Dad designed and built a maximum legally
allowed rear extension to the bed of our truck. After only a few loads with
this beginning improvement, a bigger plan emerged. With help from my uncle’s welding shop,
our three ton received a full over-cab structure with posts coming up from each
corner of front bumper. Now we hauled 365 bales per load instead of the mere
200 previously. Dad's truck became somewhat trademark in the neighborhood. Not only did he now haul the biggest payloads, but his oldest son (me) became known as the kid who could.
This sixteen-year-old with a new drivers’ license would drive these top heavy
loads into the city, much to the envy of my high-school friends and occasional
scrutinizing looks from police officers as they would pass on the highway.
Younger brothers were my passengers not at all intrigued by any of this because
they were the laborers – essential in the loading and unloading of these payloads!
Looking
back threescore and some years, I now see this as characteristic of many things going
around. There are ordinary routine things, and there are the slightly
extraordinary; both methods part and parcel of life. I think of my favorite sport, last game of
the season, Edmonton Oilers lost 5 – 1 to the Colorado Avalanche, both teams
with secured playoff spots. It was mostly a game of chance, in that the
top-ranked players did not play! Suddenly the sheer joy of hockey seemed missing. Top
rank McDavid, Draisaitl, Nugent-Hopkins, Hyman, etc. were spectators with
occasional camera flicks to see how they were making out in the luxury suites.
Meanwhile on the ice, other good players like Darnell Nurse, Corey Perry, Ryan
MacLeod, etc. did their duty to complete last jot and tittle of an 82 game season –
ordinary players doing the required thing?😖 I am irritated. Boo to coaches or
management for this strategy to either spare the elite for the upcoming
playoffs or to visibly reward the extraordinary. Usually we hear much ado about
teamwork even in professional sport! Right now I’m confused. Why this elitism
in addition to all the million-dollar betting ads this last season? I can’t
quite tell whether hockey is for the Bet99 crowd or for those fans who can
still afford tickets to the games. I wish professional sport would continue as
a celebration of the mix, the ordinary and the extraordinary.
Recently I read an old book. Very old actually, so old that even though a one-time bestseller, now hard to find in libraries (finally got it in eBook). In His Steps by Charles Sheldon [i] is about a church service disturbed by a poor man who hobbled to front of church, gave a woebegone testimony, fell over and died! The pastor, although shocked by this, interpreted it as a divine disturbance. He resolved to begin speaking in subsequent sermons about “What would Jesus Do?” It was unusual and it began a revolution not only in his church, but surrounding community. In this case the stirring reflect on WWJD became a revolutionary equalizer of ordinary routine and extraordinary actions. Theme of this book is that each of us, whether we are perceived as ordinary or extraordinary does not much matter; the important thing is to reflect on the soul-searching Jesus question in all of life's occasions. Interesting about the equalizing is that in this case even the elite business owners and newspaper editors simply re-motivated themselves to act in the best interests of all. Their lives were changed, as well as those impacted by new decisions and relationships. It has been a good read, relevant and applicable even for this day a hundred twenty-five years later.
This morning I had a nice conversation with my barber. A long-standing business in our community, owned by a Muslim family, in early easy conversation this time as I sat down in his chair I felt free to start with something other than weather or state of my hair. I asked whether they are Sunni or maybe Shi'ah. "Just Muslim" was his pointed reply. Ah, I identified with that retort, “Okay I think I get it. Me, I am a Mennonite, but really the important thing to me, I am Christian.” "Yes, yes", he enthused. Now we understood each other on that point; developing relationship even though we have 'done business' for several years. Conversation went on into various things, also blending into more neutral as other customers came in. Somehow we recognized there was no need to go into major splitting of theological hairs, just like I wish us Christians would not need to be constantly occupied with our doctrinal/liturgical/political/declarations. Being human we share a commonality worth claiming. There are ordinary and extraordinary farmers, ordinary hockey players and good hockey players and indeed some extraordinary. Mercifully all essential in the great variety in God’s garden.
One thing the barber and I did not agreed on. Are we slaves (his point) or are we children of God (my
point)? - kind of unusual topic for a barber shop, but it beats reviewing the weather. Next time.
