When we no longer know

I think I'm a bit late in coming to Wendell Berry. An article about him in Christianity Today five years ago declared that he was growing in popularity amongst evangelicals of my temperament - and I only really got into him last night. But never mind. There's no such thing as "too late" for these things.

I decided to read him primarily because I knew he had written about economics, and I've decided that I care too much about things like fair trade to pretend that I don't care about economics. Separating the two hardly makes sense any more. That said, I can't read economics without a soul. So instead I go to a Southern farmer-poet economist, because that's just about as soulful as it gets.

Of course, if you approach Wendell Berry in this manner, you will almost certainly become sidetracked. You will start listening to the lilt in his voice perhaps a little more than his words, and when you discover his poetry - well, then, economics will be far from your mind.

Here's a little something from him to bring some peace and beauty into whatever kind of day you are having:

The Real Work (Wendell Berry)

It may be that when we no longer know what to do

we have come to our real work,

and that when we no longer know which way to go

we have come to our real journey.

The mind that is not baffled is not employed.

The impeded stream is the one that sings.