Work

Having spent a good portion of my life in school, and talking and writing a lot as a pastor, I've always romanticized work with my hands, and craved the knowledge of how things work. About the only experience of working with my hands, though, has come from mission trips. Helping build a ramp, put siding or house wrap on a house, painting, and gutting are my only experiences of doing much, and not at any level of skillfulness, I might add.

My husband Rock discovered his call to be a builder while working on a Christian mission in New Guinea. He knew he didn't want to go to college, and the only option given to him was mission service. Within three months of arriving, three months of putting in a water system and working with his hands, he called home saying, "I think I've found what I want to do!". Rock says that he and his son Jake often look at one another at work and say, "Can you believe we get PAID to do this?"

The two of us coming together has made us both think a lot about what education is. I've been educated in a great deal of abstraction--concepts, words, theories. I've always felt cut off from the satisfactions he describes from being in the fresh air, using his body to put sticks and stones together into something useful, a safe shelter for a family.

We both feel a call to be with folks who recently entered "adulthood", but who have no idea how all of a sudden, on a birthday marking their 19th year of life, they can know "what they want to DO with their lives."

We believe there's a lot more to education than graduating in the top ten, rushing off to an expensive college, and getting that degree. We believe there's great value in spending a year learning about ourselves and working with our hands. We hope others will find this a compelling thing, and join with us.

And we're hardly the only ones thinking about this. More and more "gap year" programs are cropping up. With the recession, paired with shows like The Office and beloved Dilbert striking such a nerve with America's cubicle workers, it seems people are talking about the value of work all over the place.

We've been reading Matthew B. Crawford's book, Shop Class As Soucraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work. He sums up much of what I'm talking about in this entry--it's a book "for those who feel hustled off to college, then to the cubicle, against their own natural bents..." (from the cover).

I'll finish with a poem by Marge Percy.

To be of use, by Marge Percy

The people I love the best

jump into work head first

without dallying in the shallows

and swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight.

They seem to become natives of that element,

the black sleek heads of seals

bouncing like half-submerged balls.



I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart,

who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience,

who strin in the mud and the muck to move things forward,

who do what has to be done, again and again.



I want to be with people who submerge

in the task, who go into the fields to harvest

and work in a row and pass the bags along,

who are not parlor generals and field deserters

but move in a common rhythm

when the food must come in or the fire be put out.



The work of the world is common as mud.

Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.

But the thing worth doing well done

has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.

Greek amphoras for wine or oil,

Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums

but you know they were made to be used.

The pitcher cries for water ot carry

and a person for work that is real.



Thanks and credits to Marge Percy and Garrison Keillor for compiling such a great anthology of poems in Good Poems, Penguin Books, 2002, p. 157-8.

One-page program description

Here's a description of what we hope Lägom Landing can be:


Lägom Landing1 7966 Reeds Corners Rd./Dansville, NY 14437
Short Description
Rock Castor (585-727-9585), Laurel Nelson (585-727-1687); e-mail: lnelson18@stny.rr.com

The transition from adolescence to adulthood is one of the most important transitions of our lives. We believe some young adults have a vital need, in the midst of this transition, for an alternative to immediately enrolling in college, the military, or a minimum wage job.

Lägom Landing is a nonprofit residential program that provides a one-of-a kind opportunity for young adults, ages 18-23, to gain vision into a foundation for the rest of their lives. Through living close to the land, using their hands on building and gardening projects, cooking, cleaning, tending animals, managing money, learning EMT and entrepreneurship skills, and serving those in need, young adults will gain self-understanding, focus, and basic life skills that will ground them and prepare them for the world.

We are located on 60 acres of land between Dansville, NY and Geneseo, NY. We live in intentional Christian community, praying daily, and are open to those of other faith affiliation or understanding to enrich our following of Christ.The primary focus of the program is to help participants establish their identities—who they are in a society that focuses on the question, “What are you going to do?”. This time in life involves restlessness and can be unsettling, and we hope to address:
a) The confusion of the transition from the home to all of a sudden, “having it all together”; having a plan for the future.
b) The “check out” mentality witnessed in over-reliance on technology, partying, other distractions experienced in college, work life, or military service.
c) The frustration and financial loss faced by students, parents, and communities when young people enroll in (or even graduate from) college as a “default” option—but have no clear understanding or focus behind their studies.

We believe that competencey with one's hands builds a healthy sense of confidence and self-esteem that can provide a solid foundation for all of life.

Community Living:

The year young adults spend with us is residential. Volunteers join us for one year, living on a 60-acre parcel of land in rural Livingston County. A main “teacher” in our program is the challenge of shared space and living in intentional community. There will be separate women's/men's living areas, including kitchen and bathroom facilities, but there will also be shared space for community life, shared meals, and learning the arts of cooking and hospitality.

Work:
A master carpenter of 30 years' experience will teach all phases of building—from excavation and pouring foundations to finished carpentry and painting, and everything in between.
Although the primary practical focus will be on the building trades, students will also be exposed to gardening, landscaping, EMT and entrepreneurial classes, money management, cooking, food preservation, cleaning, and the creative arts.
We hope to establish partnerships with area agencies, nonprofits, churches to do work in homes of those who need minor to mid-size repairs (roofing, plumbing, electric safety, insulating, etc.).

Action/Reflection:
The hands-on part of the program will be balanced with an in-depth look at how one discovers life and meaning in our 75-mile-per-hour world. Students will be encouraged to step back from the virtual world of electronics, computers, television, and cellphones, and enter into the REAL. The work of the Spirit will be integrated with the work of our hands through reflection, reading, journaling, and learning to listen to the voice of the Creator through the rhythms of nature in our day. We hope to follow the wisdom that Gordon T. Smith offers in his book, Courage and Calling: “We discover ourselves in action, and action becomes fodder for reflection.” Participants will write their own “life rule” during the year.

Play:
“Play” and “Work”, in our vision, may line up from time to time. We'll encourage students to fully use the 60 acres of land, experimenting with environmentally sound building techniques, solar and wind power, etc., and hopefully expand the property with some solid structures/cabins, etc. Games, music, drama, art, cooking contests, poetry readings, etc. will be a part of life.

Tuition and Fees:
Scholarships are available, but for financial solvency, we'll need at least half our participants to pay full tuition of $10,000, which would include their room and board for 10 months, education in basic building, gardening, cooking, money management and other life skills, counseling, spiritual direction, 2 off-site retreats, the freedom to roam around 60 acres every day, and a stipend of $200/month for entertainment and time off. Participants will be urged to raise their money through churches, family, and community connections, in order to have accountability to a community investment made in them.
This type of learning experience is unique. There are few, if any, other places which offer the combination of practical skills and real life perspectives of a year at Lägom Landing.

1“Lägom” is a Swedish word that roughly translates to “enough; just the right amount”. We believe we've been given the resources we need to live into the call God has placed on our lives, but due to societal pressure and a host of other issues, some young people need help “land”ing into who God created them to be.

Prayer Update, #1

This morning, skiing through snow-sparkled wonder of the forests and fields of our land, the name of our property, “Lägom Landing”, came alive. “Lägom” is a Swedish word that has no direct English equivalent. The closest parallel might be “Enough; just the right amount.”
Surrounded by beauty, I entered into that spirit of “enough”, aware that it is gift, grace, not something that we can generate within ourselves. Out of this spirit, “The Dream” of a place where young adults might get in touch with the BIG PLACE was born, a space where they might have time to explore some of the bigger questions of life, vocation, and identity.
Laurel and I have moved on to 60 beautiful acres in rural western New York. The vision of Lägom Landing is beginning to emerge, and many have asked how they can be praying for us. Right now we're much like the blind man in Mark 8 who Jesus had to touch a couple of times. “I can see people but they look like trees walking.” Lägom Landing looks right now like trees walking, but we have faith that the picture will be brought into focus as more is revealed to us.
We hope to open up officially in September of 2011. In order to make that deadline, we hope to finish our business plan by mid-summer, 2010, apply for non-profit status, begin recruiting in the fall of 2010, as well as break ground on our home and the center for the project, which will be adjacent to the double-wide trailor we are currently living in.
It's all a bit daunting, and we, in ourselves, know that we are not enough. Only by grace working through the gestalt of community will Lägom Landing become a reality. So in our inability, in our inadequacy, we come to you, our friends and family, acknowledging our need for prayer and help.
At this time, we ask for prayer that the Spirit would connect us to the right people as the practical model of Lägom Landing is being built. That our energies would be directed wisely in this unstructured time. We ask for guidance in sharing this dream that has been on our hearts since we first experienced the gift we found in each other. “This love is a lot bigger than Rock and Laurel,” Rev. Tom Taylor shared at our wedding, and he is so right.
As this love grows into the community needed to support this adventure, search your hearts, feel where you are called to life. Rejoice in “Lägom” in your own life, and to paraphrase our man Neil Young, “Keep on prayin' in the free world!”
Love,
Rock and Laurel