The City - Cut Off From the Land

Cain laments that he will be cut off from the land and cut off from God.

I have to wonder again about what the text means. What is "the land"? A certain part of land? An area of land in which to root oneself? The land of the earth itself?

To my ears, being cut off from the land, and eventually ending up in a city, as Cain did, makes me think of the differences in my relationship with the land and nature associated with my rural farm upbringing and my current city life.

In the city I'm not sure where to go to see the sunset on the horizon. City light obscures the stars. I dare to go out in blizzards and drive around with tornadoes a few miles away. Rain determines whether or not a put on a jacket, not when I go to work in a field or whether or not there is a crop.

In the city my perception of location and how to get from point A to point B is not shaped by trees, rocks and animal paths as it might have been in older times or more remote places than I have lived. Neither is it framed by the gravel mile roads of the rural area that is still partly home to me. Rather it closes in, proscribed block by block by concrete that moves my feet & heart that much farther from the earth.

In spite of the strengths of the city that I value, I'm always torn. Maybe someday I'll return to the country. Why knows. I don't like being this removed from the land. It's not just an aesthetic or recreational issue. It's a spiritual issue. Earth, air and water are old and basic to our being, both physically and otherwise. Consider their role in our creation story. Our natural selves (in a good sense of the word) resonate with them. Connecting with them connects us to something old, deep, vast and basic. The freeways and sidewalks, 35W, 4th Ave S, new streets in the outer suburbs, are new and short lived. Their origins, in this part of the world, connect us back a few years to a century or so. That's more meaningful and worthwhile than we often realize. But it isn't the same. Could this be why Cain complained of being cut off from the land and being cut off from God almost in the same breath?

But there is the other side....evidence of hope in the text and experience of spiritual connections brought through the city. More on that in another post.