Pages 21-36 The Big Idea - People reflect the time and place in which they are planted, and people are planted where they are on purpose by God. Discussion Qs - Spend about five minutes thinking about your terroir, your family history and the places you grew up. If you're in a group, share one thing you like about your heritage with everyone. Leave things you don't like for another time. If you're studying alone, take some time to journal and reflect on it. --- “The sense of being lost, displaced, and homeless is pervasive in contemporary culture. The yearning to belong somewhere, to have a home, to be in a safe place, is a deep and moving pursuit … increasing numbers of persons are disoriented, characterized possessors of the homeless mind.” Pg 25 Terroir, or [[sense of place]], is not a highly valued concept in [[modernity]]. We like to think we are like hermit crabs, we carry everything about who we are, ourselves, on our back, or in our minds. Modern neuroscience debunks this very clearly if the wisdom of the ancients won’t convince us, the brain is extremely responsive to both its animate and inanimate surroundings. What we think of as the “self”, especially the “[[authentic self]],” is constructed on the fly by our brains in active cooperation with all the other brains and things around us. We are not hermit crabs. See also [[Can ‘White’ People Be Saved?]] a lecture by Willie Jennings on issues regarding whiteness as a phenomenon that comes out of alienation from the place we were planted by God. His emphatic phrase “We are kin to the earth!” has been echoing in my mind throughout this chapter. We have been made from the dust of the earth, we are linked to it. The Hebrew word for human, *adam* is related to the Hebrew word for earth, *adamah*. “…wine makers who take a flourishing approach to wine, ‘submit themselves to the lands limitations…’” pg 32 No region is suitable for growing all good things. No vine can make all kinds of wine. Inhabiting the place or terroir and learning about its story and peculiarities can provide structure and guidance in a time where we think we have none and want none. This may feel restricting to some, but the paralyzing emptiness of being open to every choice possible is much worse, in my opinion. “In this model, terroir isn’t a gift, it’s a liability.” Pg 33 This reminds me of how all the suburbs built in the last 30 years all look the same. I even saw a video of a Bahamian man who said that as development came more and more to the islands, everything starts looking less like the Bahamas and more like America. Diversity and difference is a liability to the Productivity-Driven approach. If you’ve ever been unhappy about churches whose services all seem the same, well, you might find some common cause here. It has been observed that this homogenizing influence finds it's origin in [[industrialism]] and the desire of industrialism to render all components of the industrial system to interchangeable parts. See link for more. "While my heritage has been largely affirmed by the dominant culture, many have had to fight to simply express or preserve their own." pg 35 One thing that dominant culture does is enforce a particular understanding of heritage on all the people under it's influence. Think of it like farmers who are used to working in a particular land being transplanted with their understanding to a different plot of land. They have built in ideas of how farming *should* be done, how the land *should* react to various interventions. My people, German Mennonites, came to America from Germany via Ukraine. They adapted to life in the central plains, but they were always trying to bring a bit of Germany with them, create a bit of Germany here in this foreign land. In America, where the book's author and I are based, the dominant culture is a construction based on the base stock of many of the original settlers. English [[colonialism]] and [[imperialism]] are the starting points, with significant contributions from Western European, Central European, and Northern Mediterranean cultures, broadly. The world is much bigger than those regions, and America has attracted people from all over the world. When we can at least observe this fact, it becomes understandable and reasonable why some cultures find that the dominant culture represents either a headwind or a tailwind to free expression and celebration. I cannot write a dissertation on intercultural conflict in this study guide so I am forcing myself to leave it at that. The author ends the chapter with an observation that it is Jesus' desire that every person flourishes in their terroir and gives their fruit in their season. Intercultural conflict may represent a complication and confusing challenge to us, but the vinedresser knows how to keep the entire vinyard healthy, with all it's different species and varietals.