Historical Setting, 629 C.E. Vosges Mts.
Tenderness, father love, turning all will’s frustrated fervor to lullaby is a task no man can teach another. Dear God, give the patience of parent love to this house. Let the baby teach this father gentleness.
We pull the cart into the lean-too house and together we walk the donkey and the spoiled seed bag to the castle gate where we are directed to the shed where seed is given out.
Before we go in to make our request I instruct Will in the use of utilitarian civility, “You will need to explain to the man who distributes the seed that you had received barely seed, but now you have to prepare for a baby so oats will be more useful.”
“You tell him that!”
“I’m not the one who needs the good seed. You are.”
We go in and Will opens the moldy bag, showing the spoiled barely seed. “I need oats now.”
The man tells him, “You already have barely, and you let the seed rot in the bag.”
“I need oats now.”
“Okay, okay, don’t get riled. I’ll check on that. Come back tomorrow and ask again.”
As we walk away, he blames me for a bad plan and reminds me he doesn’t even like oats. He only likes the fermented barely beverage.
“Whatever seed you get, it will have to be planted, so before we come back tomorrow let’s prepare your field for planting.”
If we get barely, it will already be barely seed and it won’t need planting.
“May you one day find the humor in this, Will, but making barely seed into your beverage of choice requires something more than leaving it in the bottom of the bag and letting it spoil. Even if you wish to eat a wild pig, you still have to hunt it down, butcher it and roast it.”
“How would you know?”
“The point is, even if the seed is given to you, it still has to be planted and nurtured, to have the abundance, then it is harvested and winnowed before it can be used with other things of earth to make that beverage you so love. Every blessing, every goodness that is gifted to you takes your participation in some way. And having children, sons and daughters alike, requires a father. You are a necessary part in all the goodness you receive.” It was by grace that my sermonizing didn’t earn another punch in the face.
And today we plow his field.
(Continues tomorrow)
Lazarus Ink 