Loading...As Spring turns to Summer, I find it hard not to be distracted by everything going on in the churchyard. The beehive and the bird feeders are in constant activity, ground that was brown last week has green things (some intended and some not) all over it, and before long there will be fireflies under the trees.
In June and July, the urgent, almost disorderly, flourishing of everything in nature can feel like an unstoppable force. Irises give way to daisies. As soon as the strawberries run out, the peaches begin. Surely it will go on forever
The ancient Greeks called this kind of life βήος, which is the root of words like biology and symbiotic. It is the “currency” of our daily lives, constantly accumulating and constantly being spent. Another day of eating, drinking, breathing.
But it shares the problems of any other currency. Sooner or later the money runs out and the counting stops. And even while it lasts, its value is tied to whatever we choose to spend it on. Plants “choose” between foliage and flowers. We choose between wise and unwise uses of our time, and among the many uses that might qualify as wise.
The way we make those choices, and the value that build leads us to another kind of life. The ancient Greeks called this one ζωή. It has fewer descendants in English, but is still the word used in modern Greek to mean “is alive” and also – tellingly – “spirit.”
This kind of life can’t be measured out. It has no units. It is hard for us to imagine it coming into being without the eating-drinking kind of life, yet it isn’t so hard for us to understand how it can survive even after the βήος life has ended. The old advertising saw about “adding life to our years” sketches the outlines of it, though only imperfectly. Ζωή springs up wherever βήος is well used – the shared meal, the long walk in companionable silence, the hand held, the joy and sorrow borne together.
As faithful people, we believe that both βήος and ζωή come from God. One animates, and the other enlivens. The risk lurking in βήος is taking it for granted. It may seem endless in June, but by October, we know better. With ζωή, the risk is missing it altogether. Like many of the plants in the garden, it may sprout without much help, but it thrives only with attention.
As the days continue to lengthen and summer deepens, I wish you life of both kinds. May your vines and fig trees flourish, and may you be blessed to rest under them in peace.
Blessings
Howie+
