Let there be order and measure in your own work until your barns are filled with the season’s harvest.
Hesiod, Works and Days
Today is the first day of autumn. Seasons are a gift it has become more difficult to recognize and receive.
As a philosopher I love how Aristotle’s understanding of nature, which is much richer than just plants and animals ‘out there,’ is verified and amplified—if we have eyes to see—in the flow of seasons. A key feature of all that is natural is the ordering toward fulfillment and rest. A machine, on the other hand, simply goes and goes until it runs out of fuel. The difference is significant.
There is a choice before us: do we live like humans, or like machines? Our own nature calls us to something better—to an organic flow wherein each time has its characteristic activity and fulfillment. But we need to recognize this and act accordingly. In another age the structures of life practically demanded that we enact this flow. Today we must be intentional. We need explicitly to stop ourselves from going with another flow, the relentless pattern exemplified by the machine: where there is always more to make, to get, to have.
The flow of nature is that all making and getting is about something deeper. It is about being. It is not about getting more and more done; it is about getting somewhere. Somewhere worth being.
Hesiod suggests that we must work, and work hard. Yet there is always measure and order in this work, because it is work with a clear goal—an end that in some key sense brings it to its conclusion, even if but briefly for now.
Our work can be seen as filling a barn. What a powerful image! A barn might be large, yet not endless. We are tempted to pull down our barn, and build bigger ones. But unto what end? Indeed, this is always the question: unto what end.
Autumn is naturally a time to complete the hard work of summer. We think in terms of wrapping up our projects and tying things down. Winter is not here yet, but that time is coming when nature draws us to stop and rest. Such stopping is not total; in this life it never will be. We should always have an eye for next spring, and the ongoing work of life.
But the gift of the seasons is an opportunity to practice something that we must learn, even and especially amid hard labors. There is a point when the barn is full enough; and our work has brought us to a point that we must stop—lest it overflow its boundaries and flood our life. Like a machine that never stops pumping.
I resolve today to be docile to the meaning of autumn, and all the seasons. And to consider what it will take to fill the barn that I have, and then to turn to the people that are the only reason there is a barn at all. Perhaps we can dance together in that barn; or maybe around it, if it is full.
Image: Eric Sloane (American, 1905-1985). If you are not familiar with the art and writings of Eric Sloane, you are in for a treat. A Reverence for Wood, An Age of Barns, and A Museum of Early American Tools are just a few of my favorites.
Hesiod (8th century B.C.) was a Greek contemporary of Homer, and likewise an epic poet. His Works and Days sketches the year-round work in a household.
Husband, father, and professor of Philosophy. LifeCraft springs from one conviction: there is an ancient wisdom about how to live the good life in our homes, with our families; and it is worth our time to hearken to it. Let’s rediscover it together. Learn more.
Thank you, Professor Cuddeback, for another beautiful reflection. A reminder to be and not simply to do, but in fact a doing where one is fully alive in being. The final harvest of the late summer and fall backyard vegetables; the chopping of wood for fire pits and fireplaces; the raking of the season’s leaves. A time for family in the brace of the crisp fall air. Christ’s peace.
Thank you James for these beautiful images! Christ’s peace to you.
September means a vigil in front of an abortion business, where at 1:00 p.m. the wind comes from the Pacific Ocean down this one street and cools me as I cling to my Rosary and prolife sign. Forty days later the breeze is cooler, the hills start to turn green if the rains have come, and with great hope babies lives will have been saved. Christ’s peace.
God bless your work, Kathleen.
This reminds me of the final sentence of the book Cheaper by the Dozen (by Frank Gilbreth Jr and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey), a memoir about a family of 12 kids whose father is notorious for insisting on efficiency:
“Someone once asked Dad: ‘But what do you want to save time for? What are you going to do with it?’ ‘For work, if you love that best,’ said Dad. ‘For education, for beauty, for art, for pleasure.’ He looked over the top of his pince-nez. ‘For mumblety-peg, if that’s where your heart lies.'”
That is an excellent quote! I’m going to write that one down in my Commonplace Book. I enjoyed reading the books about that family. It was quite interesting.
Paul D and Cate, Our family too has really enjoyed the Gilbreth stories. This quotation from Dad Gilbreth does highlight the importance of considering the WHY behind the drive for efficiency.
Thank you Dr. Cuddeback, I remember the flow and pattern of life growing up on a farm in the Australian Snowy Mountains and I agree that we worked hard. We also celebrated with community and they happened at the same time every year. I miss that now I’ve read this article. I’m currently reading “Stability” by Nathan Oates, it’s excellent and touches on part of what you are looking at. I hope you are well, Cate
Thank you, Cate. Wow; you have given us quite an image from the Snowy Mountains. Even in the sadness of great things that have passed away, we can rejoice still in their real effects that live on in various and surprising ways, in the people who experienced those things, and in others touched by those people!
τίς περισσεία τοῦ ποιοῦντος ἐν οἷς αὐτὸς μοχθεῖ
“What gain has the worker from his toil.” Ecclesiastes 3:9
Is that a question or an exclamation?
I suppose it could be either.
As written in the Greek it’s a question. The answer comes, as I read it, later in verse 13: ” it is God’s gift to man that every one should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil.” These two verses taken together underscores many of the same points that Dr. Cuddeback has been making in the last two posts. Thanks!
And thank you Tom; this is very helpful!