Oct 12
12
Falling Leaves and the Decay of Civilization: Rod Taylor
Here in Northern BC, as we approach mid-October, the poplars and cottonwoods show a bright yellow display, splashed among the green spruce trees and the pines with which they share their forest home. The willows and cranberry bushes stand out in gorgeous red accents in sporadic outbursts across the hillsides. A lovely summer growing season has extended itself past the average time when most of these leaves would have fallen but here and there you see them descending on the breeze and you know what that means.
Their time of growth is over. They have been a useful part of the living tree for a season, converting sunshine, CO2 and mineralized water into plant food to nourish new growth in the roots, the trunk and the branches. As they fall, they begin to cover the ground and they in turn will soon be covered by snow. Over winter, they will serve as a blanket to insulate the soil and roots and next year they will decay and become plant food, enriching the soil; and so the cycle continues. For us, falling leaves and the changing colours of the Fall season tell us that winter is approaching with its cold hands, short days and all the challenges of chilly chores and icy roads.
Looking across our land, this great land of Canada, we see other things changing and other things falling and the forces of decay at work. We see institutions changing, organizations, industries and legislation. We see changes in family structures and worldviews and perspectives. We see ethics and values falling and the so-called “living tree” of constitution and precedent losing the “leaves” that have provided nourishment and growth over the years.
In the natural cycle of falling leaves and the warning portending winter’s harsh conditions, we can benefit from the advance notice. It can motivate us to make sure we have our gardens harvested and our firewood cut and stacked in preparation for the long months ahead. Winter will come and we cannot stop it but we can be prepared.
In human history, whole civilizations have fallen into decay over time and new ones have arisen. Unlike the natural cycle, in which autumn and winter must come in their sequence, the harsh social conditions and the decay of society is something we can not only prepare for but also can resist. We see the warnings out there, the loss of freedoms like autumn leaves…the loss of human dignity and the respect for life. In the cycle that is human civilization and its ebb and flow, its rise and fall, we can and should do something to protect the tree, its leaves, its roots and its fruit.
In responding to this warning, we must not yield to fatalism nor accept without a fight the loss of society’s life-sustaining interface. As the leaves of a natural tree receive energy from the sun and carbon from the air, so our culture needs its spiritual leaves which receive life from God and food from His Word. The roots also of this tree need to drink up the life-giving water from the soil in which they are grounded.
We can – and I suppose we should – prepare ourselves and our children for the possibility of a cold, dark future, of a society with its branches stripped bare. For many of our brothers and sisters in other lands, that is already a reality. But more importantly and more optimistically, we need to speak out to our fellow man and call out to our God to restore the healthy dependence of our society on the values and the principles that alone can sustain us.