I stayed away as long as I could. The term “highest and best use” is the cause of my early return to writing. It landed like a solitary rain drop on my forehead the first time I heard it. Curiously timed, but not entirely out of the ordinary. Then came the downpour. There is something about wooden pews that makes me uncomfortable. Forcing me upright and creaking with every movement to ensure all the heads in the room can hear me. It was meant to be this way. “Meant is a past tense or a past participle. I don’t really mean it was meant to be this way. I mean it is this way. And I suspect someone did it on purpose. There are plenty of alternatives to wooden pews, and I’m sure the depreciable life of these pews is up. Churches are tax exempt, which doesn’t incentivize replacement. So it is this way, and someone did it on purpose. I guess the nice thing about wooden pews forcing straight backs is the irreplaceable urge to find something to hold my attention. I’m scanning the room noticing pendants, 12 of them, 6 on each side, centered between the wooden columns arching to the peak of the sanctuary and then receding to large windows. As I scan, I relish the opportunity to find God in the stained glass. They remind me of the color by numbers books we had. Mary always wears blue. But I’m briefly disappointed to find there is no stained glass in this church. The windows are clear with lamb’s ear leaves bound together in wreaths and hung in the center of each window. It’s simple, natural, symmetrical, and inviting. In the glass I find reflection and words from ten minutes earlier start to play in my mind. When death was arrested I have a confession to make, dear reader. I think often about death. About how I will die, and when I will die. At a young age I learned about martyrs and heroes and started to realize there is immortal life in an early death, so long as it comes about in an honorable way. When life expires in a blaze of glory there is a sort of fearlessness awakening a primal sense of awe in other humans. I imagined I’d get shot protecting someone or something I love, or be mauled by a bear exploring unknown wilderness, gunned down dropping supplies to a remote camp, starved to death in a prison cell after being arrested. Something dignified and glorious. It’s a noble goal (and possibly selfish). And it shaped me. And I’m grateful. But things change. I met Kinzie and for the first time thought seriously about whether life could be better spent dying somewhere closer to 90 or 100. She makes life exciting. Not just the glorious moments. The mundane ones too. The daily commutes and the house hunting and the weekly finance meetings and the road trips and the kitchen cleaning and the Saturday mornings and the Wednesday crock pot meals. It’s all frustrating and exhilarating and beautiful. The moments of glory come in gratitude and prayer, and the quiet laugh because we’re out of tears and the sense of calm, and the friends and the handshakes and the hugs. It’s these types of vibrant everyday moments emerging in my mind when I ponder highest and best use, when I evaluate the difference between intricate stained glass and a clear frame with a simple lamb’s ear wreath, and how both make me see God. Highest and best use is a measurement of value, typically relating to property. It states value is measured by what is “legally permissible, physically possible, financially feasible, and maximally productive.” I straighten in my pew again, enduring the groan of the bench beneath me, and write down “highest and best use” next to my notes about Zacchaeus. All four of these criteria for highest and best use are relevant in the Zacchaeus story. (Cliff notes: a short guy gets rich by stealing from people, climbs a tree to see Jesus and Jesus says, “hey! I am coming to your house.” And Zacchaeus goes “wow he sees me, and he wants to hang” and then hops down and turns his life around.) Highest and best use. There is a quote Marin Luther King Jr. gave to a classroom of students at a Philadelphia middle school. MLK told them to believe in their own dignity, to be determined to achieve excellence and closed with a final point epitomizing his life philosophy. “In the blueprint of your life must be a commitment to the eternal principles of beauty, love and justice” The eternal principles. An aloof and idealistic comment, shored up by the grounding, analytical, words “blueprint” and “commitment”. A powerful message of hope and action, hard work and dream belief. A principle echoed by another great mind in history. This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community, and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no “brief candle” for me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations ~George Bernard Shaw (Died at 94 from injuries sustained while pruning a tree in his garden). There is a difference, dear reader, between living for the future, and living in the future. The difference is this: the future is never guaranteed. To live in it is to miss your opportunity to be maximally productive today. But to live for the future, is to recognize highest and best use is not about today only. It is about sustainable, useful life. It is about seeing people and seeing God, climbing in and out of trees, painting stained glass and hanging wreaths. Be dignified, be determined, be committed, and die well. Today is a great day to build character.
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I'm a Hoosier. I like the outdoors. Taxes are my job. I write for a living. This Blog
Writing my way to an adult life of minimalism, sustainability, and joy rooted in Truth. I'm learning, unlearning, and relearning.
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