The most important event is not being covered. The largest hydro-electric dam is close to collapsing, and another flood is working its way down the Yangtze River. The Three Gorges Dam poses a disaster many times greater than the high-rise "luxury" apartment building sinking and stinking in San Francisco. Neither one was built directly on bedrock. The high rise will be fixed with $100 million and "a plethora of building permits." They could not get me into that lobby with a cattle prod in my back.
Man-made disasters prove the arrogance of humanity, as if "the laws of Nature and of Nature's God" could be set aside for our convenience. I asked Ranger Bob, who always looks at safety first, "Would you be content living downstream from a 100 year-old sod dam?" Or two. That is what brought everything to a halt in the Midland, Michigan area. Norma Boeckler was flooded a third time but she has largely recovered.
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| China - "everything is fine," but don't waste food. |
The more I looked at the Three Gorges Dam situation, the less I found in the news. Data is scarce and fairly old in most outlets. The most alarming stories are obviously crafted by the government. Everything is fine and there is plenty of food, they say. America has some shortages with few problems apart from virus laws and fears.
Pastor Palangyos and I talk via Facebook most days. We were talking about rice there and gardening here. He learned my grandfathers were farmers, one with an agriculture degree from the University of Illinois. My parents grew up while electricity was being brought to farms, so they were organic farmers when the adjective was not needed. Farming was organic and the rules were basic.
We have a 3-D color motion picture running all the time, front and back yards. I have been adding berry plants and pollinator plants to both areas for years. There are always birds to view - Cardinals, Hummingbirds, Goldfinches, Robins, and Hawks. The insects are plentiful and fun to watch - Bumble Bees, Honey Bees, Butterflies, Hover Flies, Tachinid Flies, and Ichneumon Wasps. Some of the Butterflies are large, like F-15s, while others are tiny.
We waited for the Bee Balm, Clethra, and Joe Pye to bloom at the same time, like the climax of a July 4th fireworks display. When that happened, the air was alive with flights. The Military Gardening Group takes note - no one else has a theater in their front yard with pour-over coffee provided. PFC does have a relative's home where 30 Hummers hover around the feeders.
The cause and effects are obvious. We cannot change the big picture, but we can enhance what is already promised to us. An ordinary yard can be a paradise of flowers and creatures. We cannot help but learn from them. The Lord of Creation gave us every item we see and enjoy, from mineral and water wealth to plant and animal abundance. Then He gave us sermons and parables of Creation to explain how God works.
Matthew 6
25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
