Kedo Peseyie
In both sides of the national highway 39 lies green fields, beautiful landscape and colourful birds, captivating enough to take your minds off the many traps of modern technology, the race for the material things, the aggravated practicality of the profit seeker with his ever predictable mind bogged down by every minute detail of the rupee, and all other crazy people you meet, hear and read about in the towns connected by this almost enchanting highway 39.
We live in a rapacious age. In a society that has been hit lately by modernity and all its technological advancements, we seem to have blurred the line between civilised behaviour and rapacious living. You see, we are civilised enough at least to understand that one human should not exploit another human, but we are not yet civilised enough to understand that humans should not exploit nature and its resources.
A certain group of people above the NH 39 simply love rocks and stones. They love extracting stones from the mountains. The profit they acquire from this love affair helps them live more “civilised” lives. But this causes landslides and other dangers because of the imbalance caused in nature. The mountains that took thousands of years to form take only a few months to be flushed down the drain of materialism. This is just one example among many.
People these days are almost immune to things eternal, for example, like the ephemeral beauty of the green scenery surrounding the NH 39. We are deaf to the lessons we can learn from things in nature, for example, like from the leech that lives below the highway.
How can a leech be an example? A wise owl—yes we’ve heard that before. But again, how do we know owls are wise? Is it because they have big eyes, never say anything, and are quite harmless that we call them wise? Of course people with these same qualities have often been called wise. But in the end their wisdom never shows.
Let me try and explain why I think there is something we can learn from this leech. A friend sent me this SMS as I was writing this article yesterday: “No matter how bad and hopeless you are, you are not totally useless. You can always be used as a bad example”. And so it is with the leech too.
I love nature. Taking a walk in the jungle teaches and refreshes you more than going window shopping in the crowded market place. It was in one such occasion that I took time to observe one leech. Going past the deplorable, detestable and terrifying feeling of even sighting a leech in my shoe, I began even to marvel at this fascinating creature. Surely if everything exists for a purpose, God must have created it to fulfil a purpose too.
We learn from books that leeches are of different kinds and they don’t just crawl this planet for the sole reason of preying on us and irritating us. The medicinal kind of leech is found largely in Europe and has been used for clinical bloodletting for thousands of years now. Only a very few kinds are parasitic blood sucking leeches feeding on blood of animals, and given the opportunity, even on humans. Using their mouth they attach to their hosts and remain there until they become full, at which point they fall off to digest. As they attach to their host, they give out an anaesthetic to remain unnoticed by the host so that they can feast without being disturbed. (I imagine that is what the sin of materialism and greed does to us too as it holds on to us, emitting an anaesthetic so that we remain unnoticed until it drains us spiritually dry). It is not surprising to imagine why most of the leeches we find in Nagaland seem to be blood sucking leeches. (like many of us who only know how to say “Give, give me).
The Bible mentions leeches too. Here’s what is says about them: “The leech has two daughters; ‘Give’, says one and ‘Give’, says the other”. (Proverb 30:15-16). The leech never learns to say enough. They suck until they drop out.
Don’t we see a similarity here between leeches and our materialism and greed? The imbalance in nature is largely because of our greed. Take for example the cutting down of trees and the burning of forests, or the feasting on wild animals and birds, or the extracting of stones. We act as if we have to squeeze it so hard and make sure we get the last drop of it and leave nothing for the coming generations. This is what greed does to us.
Since the day I read about the year of Jubilee observed in the Old Testament by the Jewish, I have learned to admire God’s law for all its fullness and its all encompassing nature, its concern for the poor and for natural resources too. Sabbatical years were to be observed for beast, for humans, and for the land. Every seventh year the land was supposed to rest to make itself ready for next year’s harvest. Everything that grows up on the land during the sabbatical years would be public property, for animals and for anyone in need. As we read Leviticus 19, Deuteronomy 24, Leviticus 25, the message becomes clear, “Don’t squeeze the last ounce out of nature’s bounty. Don’t snatch, don’t grab.” But that makes no difference to us. We squeeze, we grab and we snatch like there is no tomorrow.
The Israelites would not work on the land during the seventh year-the sabbatical year. This was also a lesson on trusting God to provide for their needs. This is the year when they would learn something about the theology of enough.
For those who still prefer to “squeeze, grab and snatch”, we must realize that we are destroying God’s creation not just in the physical natural world, but we are also interfering with God’s purposes for our lives in the spiritual realm. Jesus said the meek shall inherit the earth. But by the time we realize that earth-keeping is our duty to protect and safeguard what is only ours in return, it could be too late, and the mountains could fall on us, and our inheritance could turn into a dustbowl.
Greed and materialism are destroying our lives. Rich people only want to get richer. It is not uncommon to hear well-off people holding 3 to 4 facilities that help them earn double or triple incomes. That is perfectly alright if all people are getting equal opportunities. But we know very well that is not the case. I believe something is not right if only 20% of the population control 80% of capital. I believe it is very unbiblical to identify a person by what he has rather than by what he is. We need to stop and think more in line with the theology of enough. We need to realise that “To be…” is much more important than “to have”, “to grasp”, “to posses”.
