A Parable of Politics

3.17.24

This last Thursday, we had a delightful gathering at the Side Bar Bottle Company. Thanks again to Louise Mazur, Dian Hloros, and Jean Spangler for checking folks in and taking care of the details. Forty people came by, including some new folks who were contacted by one of our phone bankers.

My guess is that the phone banker who reached these new folks probably made around 75 calls for that single fruitful contact. There might have been a few people who were rude or hung up. They might have reached a few other people who said that they were interested but who didn’t attend. But if that phone banker hadn’t kept at it, these new folks wouldn’t have learned about the meeting.   

Put all this in front of a bible professor like yours truly, and it gives rise to a few thoughts about the role of chance and effort.

A famous Jewish teacher once told a story that you may heard. One day, a farmer went out to sow some seed. Some of it fell on the path and birds ate it. Some of the seed fell on rocky ground where there wasn’t much soil, and even though the seed sprouted initially, it soon died out. Some of the seed fell among thorns and weeds, which choked it off. All of which prompts the question: what kind of farmer throws his valuable seed on paths, rocks, and thorn bushes?  Has anyone out there bought grass seed recently? A 50 lb. bag of tall fescue costs $157.77! And in the ancient world, you couldn’t just pick up another bag of seed from Lowe’s; farmers needed to carefully shepherd their stock of seed from year to year. Clearly, this farmer could use a bit of mentoring when it comes to best practices. Perhaps he was just a little too enthusiastic in the sowing. 

In any event, a few of the seeds fall in fertile ground and catch hold, yielding a crop, of 30, 60, and even 100-fold.

There may be a couple lessons here that are relevant for political work. First, a lot of that seed went to waste. Nothing came of it: like some of the time spent in political meetings. Sometimes the effort, the time, the resources, don’t result in any discernible outcome. But if you hadn’t shown up, hadn’t put in the effort, there would most definitely be no yield.

Second, the exuberant, even profligate actions of the sower—casting valuable seed all over the place—might seem a little crazy. It makes sense that people want to invest their time and resources wisely, and to maximum effect. But it may be possible to be too cautious, too hesitant when it comes to investing time and resources. It might be necessary to take a few chances, to be a little reckless. 

Chance and determined effort: there’s a strange alchemy between these two elements. It’s hard to see where and when the fruits of our actions and outreach will take hold. It might be somewhere unpredictable. Add a bit of cheerful, irrepressible enthusiasm and we might just get through 2024 without losing our minds.

Have an incredible week,

Greg