5/11/2012 Portland, Oregon – Pop in your mints…

Today we continue our brief trip back to one of the origins of the agitation which is The Mint:  The Subtle Change from Principles to Rules.

The following is another excerpt from our soon to be released ebook.  It will be offered  for free through Smashbooks.com in all common ebook formats in the coming months.  Enjoy!

Meadow Improvement

The once vibrant meadow and its subsequent demise can provide us with a metaphor from which to gain an understanding of the difference between principles and rules and what it means for us as persons as we navigate together this subtle yet incredibly important cultural change in our society.

We pick up the scene at our meadow in the aftermath ofWoodstock.  It has become obvious to everyone in the meadow, both deer and persons alike, that the meadow is no longer the utopia that they had entered.  The people become desperate to understand what went wrong and more importantly how to keep it from going wrong again in the future.

How will they go about this?  First, they cordon off a bounding area, so that bounding may continue, albeit in a limited fashion.  Other areas are then cordoned off and efforts are made to revive the grass in these areas.  It is prohibited to enter into these areas until it has been deemed “suitable for bounding.”  Next, they decide to construct a canal system in part of the meadow and allow the stream to “revive” itself within its new found confinements.  Water from the stream and canals is then rationed, which, in turn, limits bounding.  This limitation on bounding, as envisioned, seems to rejuvenate the meadow for a time.

At this stage, something peculiar; a paradox, if you will, begins to take place.  The people in the meadow begin to see that, although bounding now has become a limited an increasingly coveted activity, and their other projects seem to have achieved their aims, the grass is growing and the stream is beginning to clear up.  Heartened by their success, they begin to dedicate themselves more and more to “meadow improvement” and less to bounding.

There is now scarcely time or space for bounding anyhow, and “meadow improvement” is a much more worthy cause.  Why just look!  We have grass growing where no one can bound and our canal system now provides more rations of water for more people who are not bounding.  What could be better?

The clear answer, though few people now recall, is the very reason that people began to flock to the meadow in the first place:  The freedom of bounding in a meadow!  Joyful, unadulterated bounding without water rations and cordoned off grassy areas.

Now, however, nobody dares to say these things out loud, because everyone knows that “meadow improvement” has become vital, and that bounding, while entertaining, must be done on an extremely limited and controlled basis, with a careful eye on the grass and the stream, lest the area be disturbed again and they find it in need of further improvement.

Of course the original, “genesis” deer and their principles, are now long gone, searching for another meadow in which to freely bound about.  Some who remain in the meadow are still searching for these principles and long for the days when they will bound freely again.

However, since most of those who remain were either unaware of, or in some stage of disagreement with the original principles, the “why” of the boundless joy that they once beheld; “meadow improvement” continues and the deer and their principles are idolized, but rarely sought.

Why?  A return to those principles would lead to too much bounding, of course.  And, of course, too much bounding leads to ruined meadows.

So what is the point of this tale, “deer” reader?  What can you and I learn from a humble accounting lecture, bounding deer, and “meadow improvement” projects?  In other words, what does it all mean?????

Indeed, what does it all mean?  For the answer, stay tuned for our final installment and Trust Jesus.

Stay Fresh!

David Mint

Email: davidminteconomics@gmail.com