Sacramental Frugality
A couple years ago I read the book Crunchy Cons. It was quite a bit after publication, because I actually largely live what Mr. Dreher was writing about- we are out of step with the culture, not being consumer minded, not about buying things 'just because,' and I wait for my small library to get books in before I read them most of the time.
There is this other something Mr. Drehere wrote about that I constantly dream of for our family's life and approach to others. Sometimes I've called it parenting on purpose (so have others, I'm rarely original), sometimes a friend and I have talked about practicing the presence of God (that's also, of course, not original), it might also be called living Christianly. I seldom achieve what I wish in this vision, in fact, I seldom get beyond the starting post, but I think about it often. Dreher calls it a 'fundamental stance toward reality' that
"is sacramental. In religious language, a sacrament is a physical thing - an object or an action - through which holiness is transmitted. Christians who celebrate Holy Communion are participating in a sacrament, because they believe that the consecrated bread and wine contain, actually or symbolically, the essence of Jesus Christ. On a mundane level, you can grasp sacramentality by considering good manners. You might practice good manners because life is more pleasant when people do, or you might practice good manners because you believe it's a matter of social obligation. A person thinking sacramentally may practice good manners because it's pleasant and socially correct, but she will do so primarily because treating others with that kind of formal respect conveys her fundamental conviction about human dignity. Someone living by a sacramental vision would therefore treat someone with the same good manners even if it were somehow unpleasant, or if there were no social expectations to do so. Being good is not something you do because it works; being good is something you do because it's the right thing to do, even if it costs you. At the risk of sounding pompously metaphysical, for people who adopt a sacramental way of being, everyday things, occurrences, and exchanges provide an opportunity to encounter ultimate reality - even, if you like, divinity."
I do like, and yes, I do encounter divinity in the every day things of life, in booksales, in accidental encounters, in the baking of bread, in the stirring of a fragrant pot of beans and herbs, in the charm of a little boy who says to me in an effected British accent, "Shall I be elegant? Or cute?"
In summarizing a conversation he had with his wife Julie about why it was important to her to be a sahm to their children, Rod says,
"It seems to me that what Julie was talking about here is, again, the role of a sacramental vision in household life. The mundane daily rituals of the housewife and stay-at-home mom actually symbolize and mediate deep spiritual truths about the home and its place in human experience."
Crunchy Con or not, it seems to me there is much affirmation in this book for those of us who think of our homes as our sanctuaries, our daily lives as our own version of a sacrament and life lived to further something deeper and more meaningful than The Shopping Channel, and therefore, there is something affirming here as well for those of us who view even living within our means, while still blessing others, as something of a sacrament.
Dreher wrote the following about homeschooling, but I am going to change the wording a bit:
"Homeschooling Living within your means forces you to see your home as a place where more than just consumption takes place. It leads you back to the traditional view of the home as a place where something was produced. It keeps you from seeing home as just a place where you sleep and eat before you go out into the rest of the world to do the really important things. It keeps you from feeling dependent on experts to do the serious teaching of your children the products of Madison Avenue to be fulfilled.
We are not truly agrarians, though we are not unsympathetic to the goals and ideas of the genuine articles such as Rick Saenz and Joel Salatin.
In spite of not being agrarians, we've grown and butchered our own chickens, collected our own eggs, milked our own goats, even eaten two that the HM butchered by himself while the girls and I cowered inside. He's set broken goat legs. I have untangled goats from fences and chased them through the thistles trying to get them in for milking. The oldest two Progeny have milked the goats, the HG while watching a red-eyed possom glaring at her over their feed bag. I've made cheese and grown a few vegetables, and we sprout a lot of our own sprouts. We've raised and had our own pigs butchered, and right now there are three cows grazing in our meadow that we intend to butcher this fall (selling one, keeping the other). But we never felt like we were truly agrarian, we were just play-acting.
(Full disclosure: the fact that we did pretty much all of this very badly contributed towards the dreamlike and very unreal feel of it all.
Nightmarish might be another word for it.)
But still, it is good to think of frugal living as part of the noble agrarian pursuit of production rather than consumption.... as a sacrament that demonstrates our gratitude for what we have, our stewardship of our blessings, our efforts to be givers rather than takers, to be a blessing to others while demonstrating what it is to live within our means. To use and reuse creatively is not drudgery, if we look at it properly. It is praise, plain as bread and milk perhaps, but praise nonethless.
related posts:
- A Multi-Generational Frugal Vision Husband and I were basking in a quiet afternoon at...
- The Frugality of Books Dusting my seemingly endless shelves of books, my thoughts began...
- Cheerful Frugality Explores Extremes As frugality bumps into mainstream media, I'm hearing more backlash from...
- Bread Crumbs A friend wrote to ask if she could make bread...
- Cheerful Frugality & The Gift Of Less As a parent, I work hard to give my kids the...
6 Responses to “Sacramental Frugality”
April 9th, 2010 at 7:41 am
Food for thought! I’ll need to read this 3 or 4 more times to begin to digest.
I feel sure I agree, but I want to understand what it is I’m agreeing to.
Thank you, friend, but you’ve made my brain hurt this morning.
April 9th, 2010 at 9:42 am
Why do you feel you have done all of this ‘very badly’ I think if you tried your best; what more could be done? You are on a learning curve. No one does everything perfect the first time out. Keep going. It will get more natural to you and you will get better.
I say yeah for your family. A fine example in this year of 2010.
April 9th, 2010 at 11:59 am
Roxie, Thanks for the encouragement.
I feel we did it very badly because a mama goat died due to our mistake in putting up the fencing, and a number of chickens were eaten by predators also due to inadequate fencing/housing.
We learned something, and even raccoons need to eat, orc-like nastinesses that they are- but I really feel horrible about the fact that a nursing mama goat strangled herself in the process of our stumble through the learning curve.
April 9th, 2010 at 2:24 pm
As you said, a stumble through the learning curve. I know you feel bad that she died but maybe it was her time to go. It was all part of God’s plan. I believe if we do our best, try our best, pray for the right plan, then it is in God’s hands.
What more can a mere human do?
I once lost a puppy because I was trying to keep them safe. She tried to get under a door and got her little head caught. I cried and cried…it broke my heart. I wanted to keep her safe from the road while we fixed our fence and she died because there was a small space under the door of the garage that she wedged her head in..I did not hear her in distress…I still have a broken heart thinking of her all these years later, but I know I did not do anything wrong. I tried to keep her safe..she was just not a real smart dog yet (too young) and I was not real smart either or I would have been more careful…the would of’s, could of’s, and should of’s can get you down if you let them. That is where prayer comes in..I don’t think you can have enough prayer.
April 10th, 2010 at 7:32 am
I *really* what you’re saying here…especially the re-wording of that homeschooling quote. I’ve been playing with this idea off and on since I read a blog post here
http://www.conversiondiary.com
which linked to this article about the idea of a “domestic monastery”:
http://www.lifeissues.net/writers/ron/ron_14domesticmonastery.html
April 10th, 2010 at 9:38 pm
Oh, how I miss my weekly (and sometimes more frequent) dose of Rod Dreher. He used to write for The Dallas Morning News, which is my daily paper. I’ve always intended to read Crunchy Cons, but you’ve just moved it up on my to-do list. I like that description of being at home (I’m a SAHW) as a sacrament. What a beautiful way of viewing it.
Leave a Comment