Modern Man Needs the Homestead
On winter, limits, and the lie of control
One of the great powers of starting a homestead is that you quickly learn, you are not as in control as this modern world has led you to believe. And as I’ve been reminded:
“Or the natural [world]” - Old Hollow Tree
Indeed, the natural word is the greatest of humblers, and modern man could use some humbling.
Submitting yourself and your family to the homestead style of life, even if on the micro scale, is submitting yourself to Nature; to the all-powerful Mother that actually defines the days. And for most of human existence, Man had the utmost, fearful appreciation, and respect for her powers. Especially in the Northern countries of the world, where the descending winter months of snow, ice, and darkness will swallow you whole without hesitation. Your whole year was orchestrated around this profound truth of life. You had zero control of it. You could not stop its never-ending arrival each year.
And that, I believe, was a good thing.
It still is.
Much of our modern world and lifestyle has oriented itself towards removing us from this eternal truth about human existence, uprooting us from the sacred rhythms of seasons that once bound communities to the soil and the cycles of creation, as if progress could sever the ancient ties between man and the land without consequence.
The climates that include a deep winter, even a mild winter, demand your utmost attention; your very existence is on the line; your kids, your wife, your kin, your town, all of it. Complacency kills in the face of winter. Yet, this is exactly what modernity has afforded us. To be free to become complacent. Modernity has given us a reliable, permanent supply and source to all our needs, year round, especially during the cold winter months, through industrial systems that degrade the earth and estrange us from the regenerative cycle of soil, seed, and stewardship.
These days most people wouldn’t bat an eye at the improbability of buying fresh produce at the grocery store in the middle of January here in Rhode Island, nor in northern New Hampshire. A time where you can enjoy a fresh mango, while the land around you is shrouded in snow and ice.
To help comprehend the marvel of this, I was told a story by a friend of mine, and it goes like this:
There's a scene from the movie "Victoria & Abdul" (not worth watching) where her Indian liaison explains what a mango is, so the queen asks for one to be brought to her.
A few weeks later, they present her with *the mango*, and it's rotten.
Made me appreciate modern shipping! - Nicholas Carrigg
What even one of the most powerful figureheads in the world couldn’t get fresh more than a century ago, regular people like us can grab today for a few bucks down the street at the grocery store. Pretty remarkable.
Then there is the improbability of a constant heat source, controlled to your personal liking, without any effort on your part, was not even a possibility for most even half a century ago. Even our wood burning hearths are disappearing, with modern homes being forced to pay for natural gas to light ablaze their fake ornamental wood if they desire any semblance of early times.
And, of course, you need to pay for this comfort, but instead of paying through the sweat and toil of chopping wood, you do so, typically, in some unnatural, corporate or home office setting, where labor is abstracted from the land’s demands and the soul’s need for rooted work.
But this is not really at the heart of the matter here. It’s not the near unbridled access to all these amenities, for I use them and truly appreciate how we’ve invented our way of life towards them; these things have freed us in a sort of way to dive deeper into other things, which is actually quite incredible. You can now work remotely from the foothills of the Green Mountains, while tending your homegrown, homesteading business on the side, instead of needing to be tethered to the suburbs of a major city, towards which you must commute hours of your day to, and through which, you may one day free yourself for the machine entirely.
Though, you’d be wise to recognize that not all of these technological advancements are good for us. Employ them where useful, yes, but don’t let them make you forget what you are or who you came from.
It’s the fact we’ve, collectively, here in the Western world, have lost the respect and the significance, and the life-giving powers that Nature, and the seasons give us, trading the perennial wisdom of traditional orders for a profane illusion of mastery, where the sacred hierarchy of being is inverted, and man pretends to reign over what he can only serve.
And ever more so a healthy fear, or rather respect for Nature inevitably cultivates a portal to God, our Creator, awakening the attentive soul to the afflictions that purify, the wild mysteries that rewild the heart, and the metaphysical truths that endure beyond the machine age’s fleeting dreams.
Once you realize, understand, that you are truly not in control, you inevitably arrive at the question of a creator. Especially when you find yourself in the depths of the winter, when the cold and darkness has a stronghold on you, your every day activities are constrained, defined, ordered towards survival so that you can arrive alive in springtime. It’s here during these periods where you can most deeply ponder Existence. Without this period of the year to stop, and reflect on life’s existence, you may never do so, and life will just drift on by, unmoored from the communal bonds and ecological graces that once sustained civilizations in harmony with the divine order.
This is the significance of a homestead in today’s modern age. The moment you add natural life to your family; that lives outdoors, susceptible to the seasons, the predators, the natural order of things, which is very unlike our modern indoor, climate-controlled, supermarket-fed existence, you can no longer be complacent anymore.
Things are constantly happening.
Preparation for the changing season constantly demands your attention.
Your presence in the natural world is required!
No longer can you hide in the shadows of modernity. Mother Nature betters you, or whatever you have sown, whether tomatoes, chickens, or bees, will wither away and die, or be slaughtered by the beasts of the woods, reminding us that true abundance flows from mimicking creation’s patterns, not dominating them with synthetic force.
And to my final point. Modern man needs this. You need this. We all need this. That accountability to what we cannot control. Which is found in no more of a perfect form than right outside your door, in nature, under the gaze of the sun, and moon, and God himself, where the humble act of tending the earth restores the soul’s connection to the eternal, defying the dark myths of endless growth with the quiet revolution of living simply, sacredly, and in place.
Thank you for being here with us.
Wonderful, thoughtful. Thank you!