Ponder Patriotism

While I don’t have much time to devote to this topic, it is something that I have certainly thought about while gardening and so will quickly write a few of my thoughts on patriotism before the kids wake up from a nap.

I love coming out of the house on a fresh morning and putting up the flag, which is what I did yesterday, July 4, 2009. Flag flying is certainly a patriotic gesture; however, I wouldn’t say that in every home with a flag there lives a patriot and that includes on the 4th of July. I’ve seen flags on homes where the flag is up every day. Some times there is also a second flag, one around the corner from us has the US Marines. I’m pretty sure that he is truly patriotic.

Yesterday there were flags on many houses all over. Flags I’ve never seen on houses before, flags that weren’t there on Memorial Day in May or Veterans Day last November or two months prior on September 11th. In the back yards of some of those houses yesterday were BBQ grills with hot dogs and hamburgers. But I really don’t know if all of those gestures were patriotic or if they were only celebratory, having a good time because it is a holiday. I don’t even know if they were commemorative or reflective. The thing I’ve thought about is all of those flags and how they weren’t there on Memorial Day intermingled with the same smell of BBQ. I wonder if these are truly patriotic people. I wonder if they would consider themselves patriotic.

In a neighborhood not far from us there is a street with many flags, three of them have lighted flags and pictures of soldiers. Although I’m not sure, I hazard to guess that these three neighbors have sons serving our country. I’m pretty sure they are truly patriotic.

For an immigrant to become a citizen of the United States they must pass a written exam. Most naturally born Americans would not pass this exam. One question that immigrants study is: Name the three branches of government. My fear is that the All-American answer to this question asked of a stadium full of people about to watch America ’s All-American pass time would be "Huh?" From the more educated maybe a question, "What, the government has branches?" Perhaps two or three would get it right. Are you one of them?

Continuing on with the game, before it starts someone would inevitably get up and sing the National Anthem. The crowd would rise and some hands would go to the heart. BUT, I wonder how many in the crowd would wonder why the rest of the anthem isn’t ever sung at baseball games. I wonder if they would even know the name of the song, the name of the man who was inspired to write it, and the reason why he was so inspired. If the home team wins and there are fireworks afterward, I wonder, would people thik the fireworks were celebratory for the winning team or a patriotic gesture that is now watered down to just being fanfare? Would they ever draw the connection between the song at the beginning and the fireworks at the end?

I compare those that waive a flag once or twice a year and consider themselves patriotic to those who claim to be religious and close to God but only make it to a worship service once or twice a year and maybe pray when they’re about to get in a car accident. Wake up! Get of your lazy BBQd bottoms! Patriotism isn’t BBQ or baseball or apple pie. If you’ve made it through the 4th of July without thinking of the sacrifices that went into forming this great nation, then I invite you to ponder. Being American doesn’t make you patriotic, patriotism makes you American.

Ponder not much time to ponder

I haven't had much time to garden, to ponder while gardening or to blog about it. The nice thing is that this is the easy time of the year when all you have to do is water, pull a few weeds here and there, and EAT FRESH VEGGIES. Our squash is on!

Here is a picture from Sunday afternoon (June 14, 2009):

Ponder Fresh Tomatoes

A gardening friend shared this tip with me. With tomato season around the corner, this is an excellent thing to keep in mind. Visit this link to learn how to keep tomatoes, either by storing stem down or taping the stem end air tight: Storing Tomatoes

The plan with all the tomatoes we're growing (8 tomato plants, 7 varieties) is for my wife to cook them into some of her sauces and freeze them. This way in the winter months all we'll have to do is boil the noodles and thaw the sauce and dinner is ready, made with summer fresh tomatoes. My plan is to pick the ripe tomatoes daily so that the passers by have less of a chance if we run into a sticky fingers problem (so far this hasn't been an issue but there aren't any shiny red tomatoes yet). Keeping the stems air tight will help preserve them until there are enough to make a large batch of sauce.

I planted some decorative gourds and the pumpkins on Saturday for our fall decorations and Halloween. My 4 year old had a blast. I broke open the 47 lb pumpkin from last year and he picked out the seeds while I dug and prepared mounds in the back yard. He then planted all the seeds. When I was done, he was not. He said I have more seeds and you need to dig right here. So I did.

I tasted the pumpkin raw and it was still sweet and delicious and smelled wonderful, just like the ones we ate in November. I put plastic wrap on it and put it in the fridge and gave some to our next door neighbor. I plan on cooking it tonight.

Here is a picture taken about an hour ago.

The Ponder Garden Today

Just a quick note and picture from today. The garden is doing good despite the water rations. I finally dared look at the water meter today and found (to the thirsty plant's glee) that we're not over our ration limit. Now, if this wind will just die down tonight they'll all get a good soak!



Doesn't that look so much better than grass!

Ponder the World at Four

Last night when it cooled down outside I turned on the porch light and as the heat of the day eased into night my four year old and I sat on the bench looking out at the garden. (This is the view from the bench.)




The neighbors were also out next door and they had a bag that in the darkening evening looked like a great big snail, one of his favorite things to find and play with in the garden. The conversation went something like this.

Me: I don’t like snails because they eat our food
Him: But they don’t go in our kitchen.
Me: No, our food that is outside growing on these plants and trees in our yard.
Him: And what about snails in other peoples yards?
Me: Well most other people grow grass and people don’t eat grass.
Him: Why?
Me: I don’t know.

To him, at four, it is completely normal to have a vegetable garden in the front yard. The next door neighbors with the grass he refers to as ‘the ones with a park in front of their house’. Interesting isn’t it. I still don’t know why people have to grow grass.

Ponder Late Pictures

Better late than never; here are some pictures of growth over the last month.


Raising kids too - 4/25/2009



From the corner of the driveway - 5/3/2009


Chard Harvest - 05/08/09 6:55 a.m. - 3.5 hours later (washed, chopped and blanched) it waits for winter in the freezer

Pondering Three Gardens

Sometimes while I work in the garden I ponder some of the things that are significant about life. Beautiful plants springing to live bring pleasure to the eye and satisfaction to the belly, they relax and uplift a gardener as he or she participates in cultivating the lives of plants. As I worked in my garden early one morning, it being my third garden, I began pondering the symbolism of the number three.

While a junior in high school my literature teacher introduced symbolism in writing. We started the class studying symbolism of all different types including Greek symbolism and religious symbolism and throughout the year while studying Shakespeare and other authors we focused on the symbols used by authors to convey their messages. We were given an interesting assignment, to find as many Greek symbols as we could in magazines, cut them out and make a one page collage. Art was never my thing, but I discovered I was quickly able to find many symbols and my page overflowed. Some of my classmate’s pages were nearly empty and now reflecting back on that some of it was probably due to a bunch of adolescents not finding the time or effort to do the assignment but some of it also had to do with the fact that there are people who just don’t see symbols around them.

The number three, especially in Christianity, is a symbol which carries significance and repeats many times in the gospel and in scripture. I will mention the three that I find most important. There are three members of the Godhead, God the Eternal Father, His Son Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost (see Matthew 28:19 and the First Article of Faith). In the resurrection there are three different glories as explained by Paul to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 15:40-42 “one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars”. The fall of Adam and then later the salvation from the fall took place in three gardens, sometimes referred to as the three gardens of the atonement or the three gardens of God and they are the Garden of Eden, the Garden of Gethsemane, and the Garden of the Empty Tomb.

The first of the three gardens was a beautiful garden planted Eastward in Eden. The first garden I planted at my in-laws was defiantly nothing compared to this garden. Many of God’s astonishingly beautiful creations are here for us to see but the Garden of Eden is not here. It is one creation that I imagine more astonishing than any of the natural wonders surrounding us today. Adam and Eve lived there in unashamed innocence, not yet knowing good or evil. They were tempted by Lucifer and Eve was beguiled and partook of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Beguile is a big word, a word not commonly used today. The beguiling of Eve is a symbol repeated over and over in literature throughout history and is still prevalent today, especially in comedy where the woman falls prey to some plot. Some of that is taken too far to the extreme and woman is made to appear weaker, vulnerable and although it is not a word, I guess you could say beguileable. I have wondered how someone who lived in a perfect garden, someone who walked and talked with God, would have done something God said not to do. I would think that having God tell you something face to face would stick with you for a long time.

I find myself among the crowd of people who believe that Adam and Eve spent a long time in the garden before the fall. This could have been years, decades or centuries because they had bodies that did not yet know corruption or death since it had not yet entered into the world, death being a consequence of the fall. It is certain that Adam and Eve were in the garden long enough for Adam to name all of the animals. Since I don’t even know all the names of the animals I have to believe that it wasn’t just a weekend stay. They were there for a while and it was long enough for Lucifer to come up with a way to trick Eve into eating that fruit. If Genesis it to be believed, it was Lucifer who subtly brought up the topic asking Eve “Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?”

Eve then replies, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.” Lucifer, the serpent, responds with a lie mixed with truth, “Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:1-5)

The lie was telling her that she wouldn’t die; the rest of it was truth and Eve wanted wisdom and she also wanted to be like God, the Father of us all. With Eve’s partaking of the fruit, the fall of mankind began and death and pain entered into the world. With the knowledge of good and evil, Eve, feeling the spiritual pain of guilt for the first time, must have been devastated. Partaking of the fruit was a one way ticket out of the garden. Here again the Biblical record provides little detail as to what happened between the time that Eve partook of the fruit and the time that Adam partook of the fruit. All we know is that there was a time between the time that Eve partook and that Adam partook.

How interesting it would be to know exactly what happened then. One scripture I enjoy applies here, “Adam fell that men might be; and men are that they might have joy” (2 Nephi 2:25). This makes perfect sense thinking that Eve partook first. Adam also needed a one way ticket out of the garden otherwise mankind wouldn’t, as the verse says, ‘be’.

Adam and Eve, evicted from the Eden, moved into a world thousands of years from the events in the two gardens that would be the key to overcoming the two types of death, or separation, that were introduced because of the fall, spiritual death and physical death, the first the separation from God because of sin and the second the separation of the body from the spirit.

This Easter morning I reflect on the events of the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus Christ prayed for all mankind and took upon himself the sins of the world. He prayed just past the third watch. This second garden was not nearly as beautiful as the first; however, the result of what occurred there is more beautiful than anything the eye can see. Spiritual death can be triumphed because of that special part of the atonement.

Christ was then betrayed, tried, and hung on a cross for three hours. During those three hours he re-lived the painful agony of Gethsemane and when it was all done, He, the only one who had power to do so, commended His spirit to the Father on a grey and terrible Friday afternoon.

On Sunday morning, the third day
(Friday = 1, Saturday = 2, Sunday = 3), Christ triumphed over death and walked out of the tomb into the third garden, the Garden of the Empty Tomb. I have spent a lot of time explaining the events in the first garden and not nearly enough time on the second and third gardens. For further reading I will point you to a talk given by Bruce R. McConkie titled “The Purifying Power of Gethsemane”.

Angels heralded the birth of a babe in Bethlehem and an angel announced His triumph over death in a garden with words worthy of a good ponder, He is risen (Mark 16:6). The Master Gardener, cultivator and nurturer of our souls, the one who provides living water so that our souls do not wither and die, triumphed over sin and physical death, the consequences of one garden, in two gardens. Gardening and the number three certainly hold a great deal of significance.