In the urban migration of the last century, much has been lost. It is not only people that have migrated, but our whole thought process has migrated as well. More than a migration away from rural living, it has also been a migration away from the vital understanding that such a venue brings. We have largely migrated beyond the best context for learning how to work with nature instead of in spite of it. We have also largely lost our appreciation for the value of life.

 

In a rural setting, where life and death are more at hand, a reverence for life flourishes. Meat becomes less of a sought-after luxury and more of a need when one has to slaughter it one's self. You don't take that bloody life lightly -- 'because you can afford to' or merely 'because you have a craving for it'. Rather, you consider carefully whether or not the taking of that animal life in which you have invested so much effort is really needful. And this same thoughtfulness is applied toward the fruit of every labor resulting in a healthier conservation of resources. It is only where our thinking has become industrialized that waste has become so endemic.

 

But in more urban environments, where understanding of life processes is made more remote by the separation inherent in industrialization, our reverence for life has waned proportionately. The urban issue is more one of what can be consumed than one of what must be spent. No thought is given toward the effort that produces milk, meat, and potatoes -- only toward the effort needed to shop for it.

 

If a commodity is priced beyond the reach of the urban dweller, the assumption is that there must be something wrong with the farmer. But the natural processes that produce these products have remained unchanged from the dawn of man. Cows still eat grass. Potatoes still need water, sun, and good soil. What has changed is our industrial management of nature and it is this industrial management (or mismanagement) that has wasted our resources and emptied our coffers. In the long run, prices for natural products increase or decrease proportionate to our management practices.

 

Yet, more than the management of resources will be required to restore some sanity to our consumer habits. We must also regain a rural appreciation for restraint. We must change attitudes that have been too long ruled by our appetites. We must rediscover the fruits of disciplines such as temperance and abstinence. But, it is only with a change of heart that these disciplines are successfully and equitably embraced.

 

Thus, it is more than merely our people and our minds that have migrated away from the country, from nature, and from nature's God. Our hearts have also migrated toward more urban pursuits. Our governments could mandate the forced resettlement of rural areas to re-supply the fast emptying breadbaskets of our nations. Our educational system could reinvent itself to educate our children to grasp a rural, more benevolent view of nature. But unless our hearts our changed, these and other measures will only be exercises in futility. First and foremost, we need a change of heart.

 

The urban migration of our hearts has taken a concrete identifiable track. To reverse the negative influences of this migration, and to prevent its future reemergence, we must understand the process by which we arrived where we are today.

 

Discontent, fueled by the lie that "enough is just never enough", has been the dominant factor behind this migration, a migration aided by the delusion that getting more will somehow cure our lack of appreciation for what we've already got. This delusion is closely related to the holy grail of modern industry -- unprecedented growth. Under this delusion, contentment is the byproduct of getting more. Sadly, those that adhere to this philosophy also fall prey to perpetual dissatisfaction and subject themselves to the ruthless tyranny of an ever-elusive success.

 

By contrast, the Apostle Paul has said, "Now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition" (1 Timothy 6:6-9).

 

The second pernicious delusion that goads men to leave behind rural contentment and its polar corollary is that, "Work is bad." The converse, and equally destructive assumption, is that, "Work is the only good." In the first instance, we are seduced into contending for "the good life" wherein work is unnecessary and avoided or, at the very least, to be engaged only when absolutely necessary. In this view, a vocation is a ball and chain holding one back from the inalienable freedoms of leisure. But the Achilles' heel of this delusion is that those "unfortunate souls subject to forced labor" have no incentive towards excellence. The very method by which they hope to gain their freedom is seen as a curse, which they both desperately need and loathe to embrace.

 

The converse delusion, that  "Work is the only good," and therefore the only endeavor worthy of a persistent investment of time, energy, and money, leads to a maniacal obsession with mammon. Herein, the laborer is bound to the pursuit of vanishing material wealth. He can neither hold on to it nor take it with him when he dies. And yet his whole sense of self worth is wrapped up in accumulating this wealth and in the labor that he thinks generates it.

 

When given fully to either of these delusions, an individual is naturally drawn to that urban industry which he sees as harboring the best hope of alleviating his or her misery.

 

The third delusion, which unfortunately and far too often has some material credibility, is that the products we possess are always somehow flawed. In this scenario, the answer to our woes is found solely in producing better and better products. This delusion, often driven by propaganda and advertising, goads consumers into seeking the one thing that their "pursuit of happiness" still lacks. The industrial byproduct of this delusion is that, because 'all work is bad', all laborsaving devices are good. Followed toward its natural conclusion, this delusion then leads us to believe that all technology is inherently good and that living a more-mechanized life will somehow improve our quality of life.

 

    

This track, discontent married to the delusion that all work is bad (or that work is the only good) and that all products are somehow flawed, drives men and women away from the country in search of a remedy that can really only be found in their own hearts. But, for those that follow this urban track towards "happiness and success," the unfortunate snare is that there is no remedy to discontent except to pursue those ventures that ultimately fuel further discontent.

 

The devastating side effects of this one-way migration are many and varied. But among the most pernicious effects are these: 1) population, and therefore the rural talent pool is drained from the countryside and basic agrarian skills are eventually lost or shared among a diminishing rural population, 2) rural produce flows toward the city to support its urban infrastructure without any reciprocal investment to shore up the rural infrastructure on which it depends, 3) natural waste, which in a rural environment would be largely recycled as compost to enrich the soil and its growing capacity, is thrown into ever-expanding landfills along with the non-biodegradable waste that renders it useless and largely irretrievable. Hereby, we are draining our resource pool to support an inherently unsustainable urban infrastructure.

 

Thus, engaged to relieve discontent that began and ultimately can only be relieved within our own hearts, we are faced with the paradox of urban migration. When we finally grasp this fact, perhaps, once again, rural living won't look quite so bad.

 

Michael Hennen