Henry David Thoreau was a reporter to a journal of no wide circulation (according to his words). His accounts were never recognized and he described himself as a “self-appointed inspector of snow-storms and rain-storms”. He admits to accurately reporting for a number of years until the lack of recognition brings him to tell this story as a description of his situation and chosen course of action.

Not long since, a strolling Indian went to sell baskets at the house
of a well-known lawyer in my neighborhood. “Do you wish to buy any
baskets?” he asked. “No, we do not want any,” was the reply. “What!”
exclaimed the Indian as he went out the gate, “do you mean to starve
us?” Having seen his industrious white neighbors so well off–that
the lawyer had only to weave arguments, and, by some magic, wealth and
standing followed–he had said to himself: I will go into business; I
will weave baskets; it is a thing which I can do. Thinking that when he
had made the baskets he would have done his part, and then it would be
the white man’s to buy them. He had not discovered that it was necessary
for him to make it worth the other’s while to buy them, or at least make
him think that it was so, or to make something else which it would be
worth his while to buy. I too had woven a kind of basket of a delicate
texture, but I had not made it worth any one’s while to buy them. Yet
not the less, in my case, did I think it worth my while to weave them,
and instead of studying how to make it worth men’s while to buy my
baskets, I studied rather how to avoid the necessity of selling them.
The life which men praise and regard as successful is but one kind. Why
should we exaggerate any one kind at the expense of the others?

-Henry David Thoreau. Walden and on the Duty of Civil Disobedience

Our society is centered around buying and selling. We devout such attention to selling our selves, our skills, our personality, so that other people will buy our wares, our time, our friendships. As a consumer society have we neglected the other side, how to “avoid the necessity of selling”?

Michael W. Smith released a CD in 1993 titled “Go West Young Man”. My memories of the songs stem from listening to it while in the boat on Lake Superior enjoying a summer of swimming and floating on the boat. The songs were fitting, especially the section of the song “For You” that goes like this:

Sittin’ in the rain
Water on your brain
Got a hole in your boat
Trying to stay afloat
Has got you down

I’ve got a wind in my sail
Rubber boots and a pail
I’ll throw you a line
Rest assured that I
Won’t ever let you drown..

This summer during one of my trips to the beach the memories of this CD came back to mind and I started listening to it again. 17 Years was a long time ago, I’m a little bit older, a little bit wiser, and the world is a strangely different place.

While singing “Seed to Sow” to myself I was struck with one of those “Oh, I get it moments!” as I realized what the lyrics really meant:

Some people quietly reveal
In the manner of the meek
Some people shout the way they feel
To a radical degree
Some people sing it to express
While others hear another call
Some people speak with subtleness
And* don’t rely on words at all

We all are pieces of the whole
With different feelings to evoke
Giving distinction to the role
Different players-different strokes

Some people walk
Some people race
Some people vary in their pace
But God can use what you can give
Within the mystery of His ways

Emphasis added to the stanza that finally sunk in. There is nothing more I can possibly say to complete the thought except that my hope is to speak with subtleness and don’t rely on words.

*According to the disc lyrics “And” is actually “Some”. However, when I listen to the song for myself it sure sounds like “And” to me.