07 07 11 The Power of the Past

We have been very grateful for the visionary work Bob and Lou Ann Crosby, the original builders and owners, did in developing our bioshelter home. As near as I can tell, the Crosbys were motivated by several factors in developing the bioshelter. In various conversations with them, we have heard how they were influenced by the 1970s environmental movement, Bob’s work with HUD constructing less than ideal homes, people who influenced them from a variety of situations, and an honestl desire to make a difference in the world.

Probably all of these played a part, but I suspect the full motivation is not something we can ever know. For one thing, since we can never communicate everything that is in our hearts and minds to others, even historians cannot give us the pas in full. For another thing, we never even know ourselves completely. We have enough influential experiences tucked away in our memories, and enough emotional or subconscious responses going on that we can ever only know ourselves in part, let alone others...and let alone the past. Even so, the world and the peoples of untold past generations have somehow succeeded in bringing us to the point in which we now live, including our current beliefs about what is true. I am grateful for these people and these happenings of the past. I believe the trajectory of their actions has profound impact on me, even if I can only ever tell one perspective—the one that was handed on to me, and that I have interpreted to the best of my ability.


One thing about the Crosbys involvement in the bioshelter project was a clear love for experimenting. The solarium is also a wetlands area using nature's own processes to clean rainwater for use in the home. However, I have seen pictures of different versions of the wetlands area as the Crosbys tried to find the configuration that was both aesthetically pleasing and worked. At one point they had wooden walkways and decks in the solarium. The pictures are beautiful! But Lou Ann tells about how the slugs began to proliferate, making it a less than desirable configuration as far as she was concerned! Clearly it takes a certain mindset to be the innovators of a technologically different home. Just as clearly, there will always be more to the story of the past than I will ever be able to know or describe.

As I have been pondering such things, I have been reminded that just as our forebears have engaged in certain events that make today’s life possible, so God has been active, too. God created space-time, so it makes sense that God is not bounded by time, but is equally in touch with all of time—past, present and future. For the purpose of my writing today, I am just plain grateful that God has been at work in the past making the life we have today possible. I can never know the whole story of the past, but it is clear that God has been busy, and is still busy today making things possible for the future.

It is also clear that how we remember the past is important. We can never know it all, so we need to hold onto a certain amount of humility. However, how we remember the past shapes what we believe to be true. What we believe to be true affects how we feel emotionally about things and what kind of decisions we make regarding the issues of today.


For this reason it is important to remain in touch with our roots. For Christians this requires regular and ongoing connection to the Bible, which is the core source the Christian body has authorized for passing on faith and wisdom. Indeed, Christians believe God has been, and still is, at work in the Christian people, both inspiring the writing of the Bible, and in helping people use the bible for inspired living today.


We live in a day when people mistrust authority. Yet, we are more shaped by the past than most of us wish to know. It is important to honor our roots, and the generations that came before us and made our lives possible. I am grateful to God, to my spiritual forebears, and to my family. I am also grateful to innovators like the Crosbys, who dared plunge into the risk and the fun of trying new things in a practical way so that they could pass them on to others—in this case, us.


As for me, I try to understand my spiritual roots and I try to understand history as best I can, so that I can bear that legacy as well as possible. It is my hope that God will use my best efforts for good, including my best understanding of my own roots, as I now participate in the events that will help shape the future we leave as an inheritance for others.


“Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.” Exodus 20:12

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