This is a little circular and I’m not certain the words I’ve strung together well represent my thoughts (or if my thoughts make sense for that matter). Bear with me.
I’m up to my Richard in gardening projects and can see no relief near term. Every task I’ve undertaken came with a series of predecessor tasks that, while unknown at the outset, became necessary prerequisites.
For example: I needed to till a planting area in the garden. I’ve a big Cub Cadet tiller that weighs a couple hundred pounds. I roll it from the barn to the garden and begin tilling. 5 minutes in and I see that the tires had deflated enough over the winter to pull away from the rims. The requisite predecessor task became (1) air up the tires, which had it’s own predecessor task (2) remove tires from tiller, with the accompanying task of (3) locate/collect tools and (4) move air compressor to the house (where there is electricity) which, of course, required me to remove the rack I had on the back of my Jeep and hook up the trailer (5 and 6) to move the compressor. Now, when I go to add air the tires won’t seal against the rim. I’ve got to take the rims and tires to a tire shop (7) to be remounted.
All of the predecessor task being accomplished, the tiller and I were able to knock out the ultimate task in half an hour. At first glance the value obtained from all that I did was achieved after I tilled. In other words the value in all that I did rested in a tilled plot. I’m going to suggest that this is not so.
Consider this: when I move from a chair in an upstairs room and walk down the stairs and out the door downstairs there is no living in the beginning state (in a chair upstairs) or the end state (downstairs and outside). The living took place with each minor thought, each small movement of the arm that balances me and the leg that propels me. (Not to mention the mind that guides.) It is in the many little supporting or predecessor tasks necessary to cause me to ‘be outdoors’ where living existed. Physical beginning states and end states are like punctuation marks in life; they are not life in-and-of themselves. This is the same with the plot I tilled: un-tilled =reference point, tilled = reference point. All that occurred between those two points were where the value lays.
Perhaps the second half of Thomas 77 tells us that the act of doing (vice the act of having done) is where the value lays as well. It reads:
“Split a piece of wood, and I am there. Lift up the stone, and you will find me there.”
Is it the seeking that brings value and not the discovery?
Here is what the the first 10 sayings in Thomas have to say about ‘seeking’:
1 Why seek (avoid death)
2 To Seek (continue seeking)
3 Where to seek (take your own council)
4 Where to seek (everywhere)
5 How to seek (recognize)
6 How to seek (when 5 is merged with the last half of 6)
7 To seek (first half when the lion is truth)
8 What to seek
9 How to seek (when seeds are thoughts)
10 Where to seek (‘and see’)
The value of my garden comes from gardening. In the end I enjoy the fruits of that labor. For the Gospel of Thomas I believe the value comes from seeking. In the end I hope to enjoy the fruits of those labors. We’ll see.
