Well dressed, on the Porch

In early September, during our Language Arts class, two young Christian women came to the door, dressed in their “Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes.”  To avoid disruption, I hopped up to answer the door.  

They politely asked, “We are doing volunteer work and wonder if you would like to hear some good news from the Bible?”  I replied, “That is worthy but I am not interested now.  I am homeschooling my son.  But I ask you this question: what is the true understanding, the meaning of John 14:12?”  They thoughtfully began to open their Bibles and I stopped them, saying “Do not answer this now but consider this as you go.”  

Two months passed and recently one of the women returned with her father (younger than me), again dressed in their best clothes.  The daughter wore the fashionable full length “Little House on the Prairie” style dress with burgundy flats.  The father wore a tad-too-bright blue suit, crisply starched white shirt and a natty woven – not silk – tie.  They were radiant in their wholesome goodness.  

Standing on the front porch, we discussed grammar of the Bible passage: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.”

I explained that “…because I go unto my Father…” is a subordinate clause.  They did not see it that way.  But grammatically it simply is subordinate to the independent clause, “…the works that I do he shall do also; and greater works than these shall he do…”. I focused on the verb “do” which they exhaustively counseled meant “to preach.”  I countered that it referred to actions such as “raise the dead, walk on water, multiply loaves and fishes.”  Flabbergasted, he laughed.  Who ever heard of such a thing?!!  

He opened his tablet and read from the prepared script that missionaries having gone to the ends of the earth – traveling farther than that street preacher ever could – and having reached countless millions of people means the “preaching” is “greater than.”  I respectfully averred that the inverted sentence structure is complex; the object “greater works than these” comes first while the subject “he” comes last.  But both the demonstrative pronoun “these” and its antecedent “works” are plural so more than just preaching is going on here.  

I discussed Isaac Newton – paragon of the rational scientific mind – who also was an alchemist.  He (the father) had never heard of alchemy.  His daughter remained silent. We were heading into uncharted territory but my point was the deeper insight is needed, not the narrow rational.  In fact, alchemy arguably is a symbolic language of higher consciousness, “base metals” turned into gold a perfect metaphor during the time when alchemy was considered heresy, punishable by death.  Higher consciousness clearly does threaten the orthodox, and the street preacher – who was an avatar of consciousness – is revered not because he preached but because of what he did, which includes – as the story is told – raising the dead, walking on water, feeding the masses.  Later that evening I asked my Daughter her thoughts and she readily said “works means accomplishments.” Preaching may be one of the accomplishments but “greater than” clearly speaks to something far more substantial.

We spoke about translations – from the Aramaic, to the Greek into Latin and now English; multiple languages over millennia – but he said “God guides all the translations” thus “the word is sacred.”  An interesting point, but which renders the grammar moot.  Even if the word is sacred, our understanding is not automatic.  We need to think for ourselves, with grammar the means to insight; “these” is plural.  

We briefly discussed Buddhism, which is to say alternate paths to wisdom.  “All roads lead to Rome” is the saying but they held firm in their belief that the “King of kings and Lord of lords” reigns supreme.  

Alas, our porch chat came to an end.  They asked if they could return and I said, “Of course.”

The Grammar of Being

Two score and three years ago, to discipline my young mind I enrolled to study Latin.  Nothing in my past forecast that choice; it was a decision wholly without precedent.  My father having just died, I was given the gift of education – anywhere on any topic – and Classical Languages & Literatures was the choice that I made.  

Because it was close to my childhood home, I enrolled at Northwestern University.  I studied there beside wizened and wise men of letters.  Stuart Small taught me Greek and Latin literature, while Erich Heller – a lion among the European literary cognoscenti – and I broke bread, and discussed German literature.  Erich made a comment once that is marked indelibly upon my mind, “There is a mysterious link between grammar and the mind.”

In this year 2025, at our Art Farm Academy, my son explores this link as he learns to parse sentences, grammar’s deep structure, whereby thoughts are made manifest.  This week’s topic was “The Verbs of Action and the Predicate” wherein my son thought deeply upon verbs transitive or intransitive; objects direct or of prepositions; simple versus complete predicates; adverbs and adverbial phrases.  He marked a line dividing the subject from the predicate, determined whether a verb was transitive or intransitive, identified the direct object – when applicable – and demarcated the prepositional phrase.  Intellectual heavy lifting, he stayed the course.  

In homeschooling, a student cannot hide in a classroom of 20 fidgeting students.  This is one-on-one, face-to-face, question and answer.  For a young man coming of age, who feels anxious in social settings, his Language Arts class presses buttons.  His teacher, the Magister, is firm but fair and it is probable that nothing could benefit him more.  

The mysterious link between grammar and the mind is like a yoke, focusing the mind, as it frames our thoughts.  For millennia yogis have regarded the yoke as a symbol of union, of body, mind and spirit, which is the “being” at grammar’s root, an inlet to consciousness.  

In this age when AI will override STEM, at the dawn of a post-literate society shaped by videos and memes on a screen more than words on a page, nothing could be more salient.  The power to focus the mind and to frame thoughts is the power to articulate and to question authority. 

Let us parse from among the greatest speeches in American history:

• “Four score and seven years ago…” is but a phrase, not even a clause, but has a poetry that most every American can repeat from memory;
• “We have nothing to fear, but fear itself” wherein “fear” is both verb and noun;
• “I have a dream…” uses subject verb and object to drive the essence of simplicity, clarity and hope; 
• “Ain’t I a Woman?” changes the syntax to verb and subject but no object, using the vernacular, for emphasis; 
• “Give me liberty or give me death!”  is an impassioned hortative, in binary form: two independent clauses of verb, subject, object using a coordinating conjunction as fulcrum;
• “…stay hungry, stay foolish.” repeats an imperative verb, with contrasting adjectives, using parallelism to form an inspirational slogan [delivered by Steven Jobs, 2005, to graduates of Stanford University (but which slogan he lifted from the Whole Earth Catalog)].

At this art farm, our core curriculum centers upon “the grammar of being.”  We go forward, building confidence, into the future. 

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It is October and we glean the garden. Beans harvested, are shelled, put up for winter.